


Death Becomes Life

by stormbornkhalx



Category: Motherland: Fort Salem (TV)
Genre: Also lots of cursing, Alternate Universe - The Old Guard setting, Angry Sex, F/F, So much angst, sort of immortals, with a heavy helping of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:06:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25397377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stormbornkhalx/pseuds/stormbornkhalx
Summary: Raelle has walked this earth longer than any being should ever have to. She, along with three others, have protected humanity from itself for centuries. Unfortunately, in the modern age it's harder to stay hidden, and a radical, religious sect has set its sights on the group of immortals.This is "The Old Guard" AU that no one asked for.
Relationships: Raelle Collar/Scylla Ramshorn
Comments: 46
Kudos: 334





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, for those of you that have watched and/or read The Old Guard, you have an idea of what to expect here. If you haven't, then I would like to throw a warning on here about the fact that our favorite gals and guys are going to die... a lot. But hey, they're mostly immortal, so it all works out.

_Life becomes death, which becomes life again._

It was only when she slept that she could faintly hear _that_ voice again. In the early morning hours, as her consciousness was stuck somewhere in between sleep and waking. The words tickled the very edges of her mind, like spiderwebs. 

Oh, how she desperately missed that voice.

It weighed on her even heavier than all her years spent walking this earth. The memories haunted her, because they were fuzzy. She couldn’t remember the details of her face, the ones she swore to never forget. The voice that soothed her storms, she could only hear in her dreams.

The guilt of forgetting was just as crippling as the guilt of losing her in the first place.

Scylla.

Raelle swore on everything under the sun that she would always, _always_ remember. When they had been together, it was impossible to imagine them ever being apart.

Now, five hundred years later, Raelle couldn’t imagine what it had ever been like together.

As the sun began to filter in through the open window, Raelle lifted a hand and dropped it over her eyes. She wasn’t ready to face yet another day, even if she had agreed to meet Byron. The others had given her what she wanted: a year off. A year away from them, away from what they did. A year solely to herself, because she needed that time to recoup as the world burned around them.

None of them understood what it was like to be around for so long.

So long that you couldn’t remember all of it anymore. So long that time got to pick and choose what details to leave with you, and which ones to take away.

Noise began to filter up through the window from the streets of Budapest as the city started to wake around her. Goddess, humanity irked her to no end. Couldn’t they just let her sleep in one time?

Frustrated, Raelle threw the sheets off herself and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, sitting up. Her fingers flexed around the edge of the mattress, gripping it as she leaned forward slightly. She drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

How many more times was she going to have to wake up?

Why hadn’t her time run out? It had run out for others – those younger than herself.

Why was she always the last one standing?

She pushed off from the mattress, arms reaching high above her head and back arching as she stretched. Bare feet then padded over to the chair sitting beneath the window and she grabbed her pack. Much of her life was stowed away in there – at least, everything she needed on a daily basis. A hand shot inside, digging around for a fresh pair of clothes until she found what she wanted.

Raelle quickly changed into a black tank and grey cargo pants. A chain hung around her neck, with a plain silver ring dangling from it. She took the time to redo the braids around her head and splashed some cold water on her face. In the mirror above the sink, she looked at herself, lifting a finger to trace the jagged scar that crossed her cheek and reached down to her jaw. There was another spot of gnarled flesh upon her body, where a deep wound had ripped apart her mid-back.

Despite just how many times she and the others had ‘died,’ only the wounds from their initial deaths stayed with any of them. All the rest were healed, as whatever work kept them alive brought them back time and time again. Perhaps it was a reminder that once, they were only human, too.

Still not particularly wanting to face the world, Raelle returned to the bedroom to throw everything back into her bag. The rucksack had many pockets and crevices, places to stow weapons because she never went anywhere unarmed. Cash and fake identification of several forms took up one of the side pockets. 

Heaving out a sigh, Raelle swung the bag over one of her shoulders and headed out of the hotel room. It was a run down, beat up place – the cheapest she could find. She could have afforded much, much better, of course. Just about anyone could, really. But a place like this was guaranteed not to have any kind of surveillance.

On her way toward the front door, she stopped at the desk where the hotel clerk was watching a sport she didn’t care to give a name to. Raelle dug into the side pocket of her bag, pulling out two, one thousand Forint bank notes and dropping them on the counter. 

“ _Köszönöm,_ ” she thanked him in Hungarian, then carried on about her business without waiting for change. There was no need to split hairs over such a cheap hotel room, which only cost her about six dollars in USD. The guy who owned the place looked like he could use the extra money, anyway.

Sometimes she could be nice.

The summer morning was already warm, and Raelle was glad for her choice of clothes. She navigated the filling streets with ease, slipping on a pair of dark sunglasses to combat the bright sun. Dodging people that were going about their daily lives, she made her way to a little café that was just down the street from the hotel she’d slept in.

The place she picked had plenty of outdoor seating, and she claimed a small table at the very edge of the sitting area. She’d only just set her bag down beneath the table when a man appeared to take her order. Raelle decided on a coffee and a slice of flódni to go with it.

While waiting for her food and drink, Raelle bent down and pulled a book from her pack. She opened it to an indiscriminate page, holding the book up just enough that any wayward pictures from tourists wouldn’t catch her whole face. The modern world had come with unique challenges, especially when keeping her identity under wraps.

Her order was brought out promptly, and Raelle kept the book up in one hand, while using her other to grab her mug or fork as needed. At least food was something she could still enjoy after all this time. The one thing that humanity had gotten right – well, good food and good alcohol, of course.

Raelle’s solitude didn’t last even long enough to finish her breakfast, as someone slipped into the chair across from her. “You know, every time I’m looking for the grumpiest person in the world, I always manage to find you,” Byron said, with his annoyingly bright and cheery disposition.

“And when I’m looking for the brightest, most annoying ray of sunshine in the world, I walk in the opposite direction of it,” Raelle deadpanned in response. She set the book down and looked up at Byron, that stupid grin plastered to his face. “I got you something.”

Even though it shouldn’t have been possible, Byron brightened even more. Raelle reached down into her rucksack, digging into the main compartment and producing another book. She handed it over to the man.

“Oh, Dracula. And a first edition. Ah, I miss old Abraham,” Byron spoke as he flipped absently through the pages. “Must have cost you a small fortune.”

“It did,” Raelle answered bluntly before going back to her meal. “What’s this about?”

“It’s been a year, Rae,” Byron pointed out gently, setting down his gift. “The others are nearby. We have a job.”

Raelle sighed, already exasperated. Already tired.

Always tired.

“What is it?” she questioned.

“This one came down from Sarah Alder – you know, general of the U.S. military?” Byron told her. “One Anacostia Quartermaine is meant to be our liaison if we take the job. The military can’t act in any official capacity, but some of their people have been taken hostage in Russia.”

“Fuck,” Raelle breathed. “You know we don’t take jobs like that. We don’t do big government shit, Byron. How the hell did they even find us?”

“That little CIA job we did… five? Seven years ago? Or was it ten? Whenever it was, I guess Director Clary gave General Alder our information and they found a way to make contact,” he explained.

“Fuck,” Raelle repeated. She did everything she could to make sure that they remained ghosts. No commercial travel, no government checkpoints, none of it. And yet, the modern world was making it harder and harder to remain in the margins of history.

“The soldiers need help,” Byron reasoned. “They’re going to die.”

“Soldiers die all the time, Byron!” Raelle hissed, trying to keep her voice low despite her frustration. “And what, we’re supposed to save them so they can go back and keep the war machine oiled? To help start wars that never end, wars that kill more innocent people than they save?”

Byron didn’t shrink in the face of Raelle’s barely contained fury. “They have intelligence that might prevent a war on a global scale. You know the tensions between the U.S. and Russia and getting high, China’s close to throwing their lot in as well. Three of the world’s largest superpowers – you want to see what it’s like when they decide to nuke each other?”

Raelle shook her head, unable to look at him for even a minute longer. They helped civilians, innocent people. They’d long gotten away from meddling in wars unless it was absolutely necessary. And it was becoming necessary less and less.

“Okay… then at least come and see the others,” Byron placated. “They came all this way.”

Raelle’s jaw worked in annoyance, but ultimately, she agreed. “Fine.” She left cash on the table for the waiter to come get whenever he realized she was gone, and grabbed her bag before standing. She followed a couple steps behind Byron as they headed through the streets of Budapest, her eyes ever alert and watching for any kind of threat behind her dark shades.

They came to another hotel, a well-dressed manager standing at a desk within the enclosed front courtyard. Byron approached him, having a quick exchange of words and money, then he motioned for Raelle to follow him. Again, she was a couple of paces behind, following him into the hotel. This wasn’t a place she would have picked, lots of tourists milling about. But the pair slipped in without drawing any undue attention.

At the end of the hall on the second floor, they approached a pair of glass double doors. Those doors suddenly flew open and Raelle felt a body hit her like a freight train.

Raelle sputtered out a breath. “Hey, Abigail,” she greeted.

The other woman pulled back, keeping her hands on Raelle’s biceps as she looked her over. “You good?” she asked.

“I’m good,” Raelle confirmed with a nod.

As Abigail pulled away, letting Raelle into the hotel room, a man approached her. Raelle smiled faintly and swung her arms around him, as he did the same to her. “Adil.”

“Hi, Rae,” he said happily. Even though they were alone in the hotel room, on a hot summer day, Adil wore a scarf around his neck to hide the scar that ran all the way across his throat.

Raelle let herself be ushered into the sitting room, dropping onto the couch and hooking her sunglasses in the front of her tank. Abigail joined her there, and the guys took up the chairs. It had been over a year since they’d all been together again.

“You travel?” Abigail asked.

“I did,” Raelle nodded. There was nowhere that she hadn’t been before, but it was nice to be able to simply _be_ for a little while. A year was nothing, compared to all of those she’d already lived. It had felt like the passing of a single minute, but it had been refreshing.

“She missed us,” Byron said playfully. “You can tell by the look in her eyes.”

Raelle shook her head at him, but didn’t deny his claim. She had missed them – they were her family. She’d needed a break though, from them, from the world, from everything.

It was good to be with them again. It was good to be home.

“So… this job,” Adil brought up the elephant in the room.

“I don’t know,” Raelle told them. “We don’t take jobs like that. It’s hard enough to stay on the outskirts as it is.”

“I checked everything out myself, Rae,” Abigail told her. “I vetted absolutely everything about the job, it’s legit. Three U.S. soldiers are being held in a Russian town, likely to be executed any moment now. They have intelligence that could prevent a massive war from breaking out.”

“Have any of you turned on a television lately?” Raelle asked them, meeting each of their gazes. “There is nothing but war anymore. The world isn’t getting any better, it’s only getting worse. We used to do some good, but now? We can’t stop it all.”

“So, we stop the big things,” Abigail suggested. “The things that could lead to the world’s first nuclear war.”

Raelle stood from her seat, walking over to the open balcony door. She needed to get up, to move. She would have preferred to pace, but she leaned against the door frame as she looked out at Budapest. At least the hotel room had a good view of the city. She could remember a time when it was all open land here, nomadic peoples traveling across it.

“Raelle,” this time it was Adil that spoke. “We can still do some good.”

She drew in a deep breath, closing her eyes. There was something she didn’t like about this job, but she was outnumbered by the others. “You have a way to contact Quartermaine?” she asked.

“Just waiting for your go-ahead,” Byron answered. 

“Set up the meeting.” Against her better judgment, Raelle would hear what their liaison had to say.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, early in the evening, Raelle followed Byron through the city streets once more. They were meeting their military contact in one of Budapest’s marketplaces. It would be an open space, plenty of people around so that neither side would get a foolish idea in their head. Well, at least, so the soldier wouldn’t do something foolish.

Across the square, perched in an abandoned building, Abigail was staring down the scope of a sniper rifle. Adil was there with her, tuning their audio equipment to record the conversation that was about to happen.

Byron was always the one to go with Raelle to meet potential clients, after they lost Scylla. He had a kind of charm and disarmament that couldn’t be taught or learned. It was a gift given, alongside their near immortality. Each of them had one such gift.

Abigail could conjure powerful storms.

Adil could literally move the earth.

Raelle could heal people.

Scylla had spoken to the dead.

There had been two others with their own gifts, but their time had run out long ago, just like Scylla’s.

Raelle spotted their contact even before they got to the outdoor seating area and it pulled her out of her spiraling thoughts. It was easy to spot soldiers – they all had the same look in their eye. Quartermaine was determined, jaw set, eyes constantly watching her surroundings, and looked like she had never laughed in her life.

Yes, that was a career soldier right there.

Byron accelerated his last couple of steps, getting to Quartermaine first and holding out his hand. “Anacostia Quartermaine, I presume,” he greeted.

The woman leaned forward and grabbed his hand with enough strength to make him wince. “I never got your name,” she pointed out.

“Byron,” he answered, retrieving his hand from her grip. He pulled a metal chair closer to himself so he could sit down.

Raelle approached the table, but wasn’t nearly as friendly as her counterpart. “Raelle,” she introduced herself gruffly, grabbing herself a seat as well.

“You two got last names?” Quartermaine asked them.

“You’d never be able to afford them,” Raelle spoke before Byron even had a chance.

“I’m sure you understand that in our line of business… the less that you know, the better,” Byron tried to diffuse any tension that Raelle brought to the table.

Quartermaine looked between them both, as though she was trying to decide if she really wanted to go through with this. Orders were orders, though, it seemed. She unlocked a tablet and placed it in front of Byron, either because she liked him marginally more or she thought he was the brains of this operation. “We have three soldiers that have been captured. Two combat, one intelligence. It is the intelligence officer that is the priority here.”

Byron slid the tablet over to Raelle. On the screen were dossiers of the soldiers’ information: Sergeant Bridey, Corporal Swythe, and Corporal Moffett. Three women that had gone behind enemy lines when something went wrong.

“It was a strictly recon mission,” Quartermaine explained. “They had no identification on them to indicate they were military. We honestly don’t know how they ended up being captured.”

“Why not leave something like that to the CIA?” Raelle asked, scrolling through the files.

“General Alder and Director Clary don’t necessarily play nice together.” There was some annoyance in Quartermaine’s voice. “It was critical military information that we were after, so Alder made a play on it. There weren’t supposed to be combatants in the area.”

“Tough luck,” Raelle muttered. She then brought up the schematics of the area where the soldiers had been captured: a small Russian town outside of Moscow. “How long since they went dark?”

“Including the time it took me to get here to meet you, 72 hours,” Quartermaine answered. Her tone was clipped – clearly, she was the one used to asking the questions. “General Alder is willing to meet your price, that’s how important the information is.”

Byron looked at Raelle expectantly. Yet, she remained silent.

“Time is of the essence,” Quartermaine eventually pointed out. “Alder is offering you a blank check.”

Raelle didn’t like this. Something was off about it. And yet, if they could stop a larger war from breaking out… wasn’t that worth it? “We’ll send you an invoice,” she said curtly, standing from her seat without giving Quartermaine a chance to respond.

Byron scrambled to his feet to follow her. “We’re taking the job?”

“Find us a cargo plane leaving the city in the next hour,” Raelle told him. “Get everything packed up, I want us wheels up in less than sixty minutes.”

And indeed, less than an hour later, they were on a cargo plane bound for Moscow. It was only a two and a half hour flight from Budapest to the Russian capital. They were ultimately bound for a small city outside the capital: Molodi. A GPS signal from one of the soldiers indicated that was where they were being held.

The four snuck away from the airport that the cargo plane had landed at, made their way out of Moscow, and managed to pay a man in a truck to take them to Molodi. The four sat in the back of the truck bed, readying their weapons in silence. They each had an automatic weapon and a pistol, but guns weren’t all they carried. Eventually, they would run out of bullets, after all.

From Adil’s belt hung a dao, a sword he carried with him since before his first death. Byron also carried a sword, its blade made of Damascus steel. Abigail’s weapon of choice was a scourge, with which she was possibly more deadly than the guys and their blades. Lastly, Raelle had a double-headed ax strapped to her back. There was also a dagger tucked into her boot – Scylla’s favorite dagger.

When they came to the edge of a town so small it only had a single road, the old man stopped his truck. Raelle and the others jumped out of the bed, thanking him before setting their sights on the scant smattering of buildings. This was… a strange place for U.S. military to be captured and held hostage.

Raelle’s uneasiness grew. “Abi, you got a signal?”

Abigail was silent for a moment, working on the tablet, then nodded. “Got it. Coming from that building there,” she answered, pointing down the road.

“Church of the Resurrection?” Adil questioned.

Raelle was ready to turn and leave. A haunting scream ghosted across the back of her mind.

“What… the fuck?” Byron also sounded concerned.

“You’re absolutely sure that they’re in there?” Raelle asked.

“That is where the GPS signal is coming from,” Abigail confirmed.

Raelle was silent for a moment, contemplating. Her heart beat a little harder. This was wrong. “Fuck me,” she sighed, moving forward.

The others stumbled over themselves to catch up with her quick steps. None of the town’s citizens seemed even the slightest bit concerned that four heavily armed foreigners were walking among them. They just went about their daily lives.

Raelle lifted her rifle up into both hands as she approached the little church and kicked open the front door without waiting for the others to provide cover for her. The barrel of her rifle swung this way and that, as she visually swept the area. The church was quite small, could fit maybe two dozen people in it at the most, so a single once over told her the main level was empty.

“Clear!” she called over her shoulder, but her eyes didn’t leave the sights of her weapon. Raelle pressed forward, spying a door to the right of the altar. Rather than calling out what she saw, she simply headed for that door and kicked it open as well.

Raelle found herself at the top of a staircase. She could hear muffled voices below.

“Rae, for fuck’s sake, slow down!” Abigail hissed, trying to catch up as Raelle started down the stairs.

But Raelle didn’t even hesitate. She got to the landing at the bottom of the stairs, finding the basement was larger than the building on top of it. The dimly lit space was bare, save for three women that were bound and gagged. On the far end of the basement was another door.

“Cover!” Raelle barked, letting go of her rifle to let it dangle from its shoulder strap. She went over to the women that were being held captive, pulling the gag down from the oldest one.

“It’s a trap!” the soldier hastily warned. “They’ve been waiting for you. This place is rigged to blow.”

“Fuck,” Raelle swore again. She yanked at the rope binding the soldier, as Byron went to one of the other soldiers to help. With the first woman freed, Raelle moved around Byron to help the last one.

Abigail and Adil provided cover for them, alert and at the ready to fight.

“You three need to get out of here,” Raelle told the soldiers. She yanked the young woman she had just unbound to her feet. “Right now.”

“We can’t just leave you!” the other young woman protested.

The door opposite the stairs suddenly swung wide open and a hail of bullets peppered the basement. Without hesitation, Raelle put herself between the shooter and the young woman closest to her, taking two bullets in the back to save her life.

Adil swung his rifle around, two tight rounds firing off and eliminating the shooter.

“Sergeant Bridey!” the young, curly-haired soldier called as the oldest of the three women dropped to the ground. She'd been hit.

Abigail grabbed the soldier, shoving her toward the stairs. “Get out of the building, now!” she demanded.

“Go,” Raelle urged the soldier she had saved, whose eyes were wide and was obviously scared. “And will someone clear that other room!”

When the two soldiers finally went to flee, Raelle walked over and dropped to her knees next to the fallen sergeant. Her hands reached for the woman, who was thankfully still breathing. However, as soon as she laid her hands on Bridey, someone else came out of the other room.

“You are the four horsemen! The great defilers of the Earth!” the man raved, a homemade bomb strapped around himself and the detonator in his hand. “It is our duty to slay the Lord’s enemies, and you are his greatest foes upon this world. The Camarilla will be your demise, you cannot escape us!”

There were several shouts all at once, yelling for someone to shoot him, but they all came too late. His hand squeezed the detonator and the bomb strapped to him exploded – along with however many other explosives had been planted around the church. The whole building was ripped apart, and the structure collapsed in on itself.

And for a moment, everything came to a grinding halt. No breath. No heartbeat. No thought.

Life becomes death, which becomes life again.

And the cycle repeated itself. As Raelle came to again, her limbs began to twitch as she became aware of immense pain. She sputtered out a wet cough as her body began to heal broken bones and gashes. After so many deaths, one would think she would have gotten used to the pain, but it never got any easier.

Slowly, she was able to push herself up, also pushing up the debris that had fallen on her back. She could hear muttering and ragged breathing around her as the others came back around.

Raelle’s attention dropped to the sergeant still laying next to her. It was a long shot now, but she could still try… 

Despite the fact that her body was still healing, Raelle reached over and laid her hands on the woman. Taking in a deep breath, she concentrated and closed her eyes. First, she could only hear her own heartbeat, her own breathing. But after a few moments, there was a second set. It started off faint, the heartbeat, but as Raelle offered up a little piece of her own life force, it got stronger, and Bridey gasped out a breath.

Raelle retracted her hands and looked over her shoulder. “Everyone still with me?” she asked.

“Unfortunately,” Byron whined, shoving a broken beam off of himself.

“Yes,” Adil answered.

“Takes a lot more than that to get rid of me,” came Abigail’s response.

“Good. Let’s get the fuck out of here,” Raelle ordered. She staggered up to her feet, then reached down to grab the wide-eyed sergeant’s hand and help her up.

“What… are you?” Bridey asked, bewildered.

“Best not to ask,” Raelle advised. “Best to forget this ever happened.”

Byron and Adil shoved their way through the debris to make a path to the stairs. The steps were just as cluttered as the basement was now, but they were able to make way for the group to get out of the building. It took some time, and a good deal of cursing on everyone’s part. However, once they got to the top of the stairs, they were able to climb out and on top of the rubble that used to be the church.

Waiting on the street were the two soldiers that had gotten out, staring in horror at the explosion site. When the others came into view though, they scrambled over to help them get to solid ground. There was also a gathering group of townspeople watching the goings on.

Once her boots hit the street, Raelle stretched out her back and rolled her shoulders. Goddess, dying was annoying.

“How… how did you...?” one of the younger soldiers stammered out. It was the one that Raelle had acted as a shield for.

“What’s your name?” Raelle asked in return.

“Moffett. Glory Moffett,” the soldier answered without hesitation.

“Well, Corporal Moffett. Corporal Swythe. Sergeant Bridey.” Raelle looked at each one as she spoke their names. “Let’s all do one another a favor and you three forget this ever happened. Because if you don’t… we’re really going to have to kill you. Understand? And you don’t seem like half-bad people. I don’t like killing people unless they’re bad. Abi, we got a phone?”

“If it didn’t get crushed,” Abigail muttered, digging into her shoulder bag. A second later, she produced a burner phone.

“Contact your CO. Get yourself an extraction,” Raelle told the soldiers. “If you three are keeping track of the cosmic scales, we _did_ save your lives. So, the least you can do is not breathe a single word about any of this.”

It was Sergeant Bridey that took the phone from Abigail and made a call. The conversation didn’t even last sixty seconds, before she was handing the phone back to Abigail. However, Raelle intercepted it, dropping the device to the pavement and stomping on it.

Raelle leveled the soldiers with a look. “If I see any of your faces ever again, or any U.S. military for that matter, I am going to be a lot less agreeable. Do you understand?” she asked them. Each of them nodded hastily.

“Good. Let’s go,” Raelle then told the others.

Before she could fully pass by Bridey, the sergeant reached out and grabbed her arm. “I don’t know how you did any of that… but, thank you.”

Raelle pursed her lips and pulled her arm out of the woman’s grasp. She offered no response, eyes turning straight forward as she started walking again. Abigail, Byron, and Adil all fell in step with her. “Goddess, we are _fucked_ ,” Raelle shook her head.

Suddenly, Byron’s arm was around her shoulders. “When you say ‘goddess,’ are you referring to yourself?” he mused. “I always have to wonder.”

“Almost eight hundred years, and you can’t think of any new jokes?” Raelle shot at him. “This is serious. Those soldiers saw that we didn’t die. And someone else knows we can’t die, either.”

“The Camarilla,” Adil supplied. “Who are they?”

“An extreme sect of the Spanish Inquisition. They took Scylla,” Raelle told them. There was a drawn-out pause. “They killed her.”

“But the Inquisition was disbanded almost two hundred years ago,” Abigail pointed out.

“Some things never die,” Raelle shrugged. She heaved out a breath, changing her focus. “We passed a train station on the way here, didn’t we?”

“I think it was a couple miles outside of town,” Adil nodded.

The trek back to the train station was made in silence. They found what they were looking for, and a freight train was just gearing up to leave. Thankfully, it hadn’t gotten going full steam yet, and they were able to catch up on foot and pull themselves into one of the freight cars. 

Each of them picked a spot to get comfortable. Though they had no idea where this train was heading, all that mattered was getting away from Molodi right now.

“So, now what do we do?” Byron eventually broke their silence.

“You’re looking at it,” Raelle answered grumpily.

This was exactly why she’d taken a year off, why she didn’t want to take big jobs like that. Nowadays, when cameras were everywhere, the internet was unstoppable, and the world was smaller than it had ever been, eventually someone was going to find them. They’d be exploited, turned into pin cushions as mankind tried to find out what made them tick, used up until nothing was left.

And Raelle wasn’t sure how much she had left to give.

“We should get some rest,” Abigail told the others. “We’ll figure out what to do after. We'll have clearer heads.”

It seemed they were all in agreement, shifting into comfortable positions. Raelle watched the others as, one by one, they all managed to doze off. The rhythmic rocking of the train car helped to lull her as well, even if she wanted to stay awake. It would be dangerous for them all to be asleep, for no one to keep watch.

But, eventually… her head tilted to the side and her eyes closed.

Raelle’s rest wasn’t peaceful, though. No sooner had she nodded off did the others begin to twitch in their sleep. They all saw flashing visions, a broken image reel as something terrible happened halfway across the globe. 

Fear, blood, a shuddering gasp, and then-

All four of them shot awake at the same time. “Oh my god,” Byron gasped.

Abigail doubled over, holding a hand to her head as she tried to catch her breath.

Adil’s hand went to rest over his abdomen, breathing hard. After a moment, he reached for his bag and pulled a journal out of it. “What did you see?” he asked the others.

“Damn it,” Raelle growled, running a hand through her hair. “Not now.”

“A woman,” Abigail told Adil. “Red hair. There were others – they all spoke English.”

“English accent,” Byron offered up.

Raelle couldn’t believe this was happening again. Why now? It had been so long. This was the worst time for another one, when they were _so_ close to being discovered. When they were already out in the open, in need of finding a place to hide.

“City streets,” Adil said as he began to draw what he could remember. “An ambulance.”

“Someone screamed to call 999, so that with the accents… it’s gotta be the UK,” Abigail added.

“The UK is a big place. I couldn’t see any of the buildings close enough.” Byron’s hand went to the same spot on his abdomen Adil had touched moments before. “I felt her die.”

“She’s in London,” Raelle cut in, making everyone stop their clamoring to remember and look at her. “Mugging gone bad. It’s been over 200 years since there’s been another one…” She trailed off, shaking her head.

Adil went back to sketching furiously, the face of a dead woman coming together on the page before him.

“We have to go get her,” Abigail implored, looking at Raelle.

The blonde was quiet for a moment, that familiar need to get up and move tickling at her every nerve ending. This situation was going from bad to worse, and may as well have been falling straight to hell in a handbasket – if hell was a place she had ever believed in. They couldn’t afford a new one right now. They couldn’t afford any of this.

“I’ll go to London and handle the retrieval,” she finally decided. “You three go to Germany, use the Echo safe house. Do not draw any attention to yourselves, understand? Don’t even step outside that fucking house until I get there.”


	3. Chapter 3

Large cities were notoriously difficult to get into. Absolutely everything was screened and checked in airports. So, getting to London was a bit of a process. Raelle chartered a flight on a Russian plane that was held together mostly by hope, and maybe some duct tape, to take her to Southend. From there, she caught a cab to take her into London proper.

In the back of the cab, Raelle closed her eyes, trying to remember details from the vision she and the others had. “I’m looking for a tall building, skyscraper. Mostly glass on the outside. One exterior wall is at an angle.”

“Oh, the Leadenhall Building?” the driver questioned. “I can take you there.”

“Actually, I need you to take me to the hospital closest to it,” Raelle informed him. “A friend of mine was vacationing here, scatter-brained. She could only remember seeing that building. Fell ill and had to be taken to the hospital.”

“Ah, sorry to hear that,” the driver replied. “Hopefully she’s doing better now. Nice of you to come all this way, and at such an hour.”

“Can’t let her out of my sight for even a day, seems like.” Raelle hid her grimace well, at having to make small talk. The cabbie, who likely heard hundreds of stories every day, would be sure to remember the one person that refused to talk to him. So, making conversation was just another way to blend in.

The man muttered out some response that Raelle paid no attention to, as she looked out on London. She trusted him to get her where she needed to go. While he drove, she dug into her rucksack, making sure that she had the correct form of currency on her person. She hadn’t planned in advance for this little excursion to the UK, but luckily she still had some pounds sterling with her. When she got to the safe house, she’d have to top off.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a terribly long ride, less than an hour and a half from when the private plane had touched down. The cab rolled to a stop in front of a hospital.

“This here is the closest hospital to the Leadenhall Building,” he explained, turning in his seat to look at her. “You want me to wait for you?”

Raelle shook her head, grabbing a wad of cash out of the bag and handing it to him. “I don’t know how long I’ll be. Thanks for all your help though, there’s a little extra for your trouble.”

The man nodded his gratitude and took the offered money, then Raelle got out of the vehicle. Shouldering the bag, she headed for the hospital entrance. Out of all the hospitals in the area, it was a long shot that this was the right one. But, Raelle wasn’t just someone looking for a stranger. She could always feel the others, and she knew in her bones that the new one was inside.

As she approached the doors, she pulled up the hood of the jacket that she was wearing. Surveillance was going to be her enemy here, and she had to combat it any way she could. She slid on her favorite pair of sunglasses, even though it was dark out, before crossing the threshold. Mentally, she started a countdown the moment her right foot stepped onto the laminate flooring. There was a fairly standard amount of time she knew that she could go unnoticed in a place she wasn’t supposed to be, and she wanted to be out of here before she even got close to that cut off.

Confident steps drove her down the hall, toward a nurse’s station. The place was busy, which suited her just fine. The nurse’s station was empty, so no one stopped Raelle as she flipped through the files in the organizer hanging from the wall. It had only been six hours since she and the others saw the woman die, she still had to be here.

Quickly rifling through the files, Raelle found one for a woman that had been brought in, critical condition, with a stab wound. Blue eyes flickered over to the picture in the file – that was her. “Alright, Tally Craven, let’s get you out of here.”

Rather than putting the file back in its place, Raelle slid it into her bag. If she was lucky, maybe the hospital staff wouldn’t have done their logs, yet. It would be a lot easier to make Tally disappear if there wasn’t a paper trail. Or, at the very least, if there wasn’t as much of a paper trail.

A quick glance of the signs offering directions around the area had Raelle heading toward the intensive care unit. Her steps were quick, her mental countdown about halfway over. Time was sensitive, she needed to get Tally out – now.

As she swung around another corner, Raelle slowed, hearing a couple of people talking inside of an office.

“Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like it,” a man said. “She came in, she was already flatlining. Abdominal trauma. We worked on her, but nothing helped. I was just about to declare a time of death, and she started breathing again.”

“I was just in her room,” a woman piped up. “There’s no wound. Just a scar. How does that happen?”

“I don’t know,” the man spoke again. “I’ve called some specialists, we’re moving her to another facility for more tests.”

Fuck.

Raelle started forward again, blue eyes spying a pair of police officers toward the end of the hall. That must have been her girl’s room. They were keeping Tally under guard.

She sniffed, swiping her thumb beneath her nose. “Hey, guys,” she greeted as she got closer to the cops. They immediately became rigid, holding their hands out to stop her. “Hey, I’ve just got a question for you. I’m looking for-“ She cut herself off, bringing her arm up to slam her elbow into the side of the closest cop’s neck. The other immediately reached for his radio, but a quick spin and kick of her leg had Raelle’s heel colliding with his jaw.

With both officers laid out on the ground, Raelle stepped over them and into the room. Inside, she found the woman from the visions she’d had.

Something akin to recognition sparked in the woman’s eyes. “I… I’ve seen you before,” she said, bewildered.

“Yeah, I know,” Raelle confirmed with a nod, nudging the door closed with her foot. “You’ve been dreaming about us. It’s normal. Tally, right?”

Her eyes got wider. “How do you know my name?”

“Medical file,” Raelle answered. She slid the bag off of her shoulder and opened it, tossing a fresh pair of clothes onto the bed. “You need to change; we have to go.”

Tally quickly shifted the thin blanket off of herself and swung her legs off the bed. “What’s happening?” she questioned. “Who are you?”

“We don’t have time for questions right now.” Raelle looked back toward the door, knowing it was only a matter of time before someone noticed the law enforcement laying on the ground. “We get out of here, get somewhere safe, I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

Though she seemed uncertain, Tally got dressed. There was still a large patch of gauze over where she’d been wounded, though Raelle knew it wasn’t covering a wound anymore – just a scar. “What’s your name?” Tally asked.

“Raelle,” the blonde answered.

“Where are we going?” It seemed Tally didn’t understand the concept of ‘leave now, questions later.’

Raelle glanced back over at the redhead, making sure she had gotten changed. “Come on. We need to leave. Stay close to me.”

Like a wide-eyed pup, Tally came right up on Raelle’s heels as the blonde went to the door. Raelle opened it and peaked outside, seeing what was waiting for them. She could hear people yelling down the hall, a nurse must have spotted the downed officers. 

“Well, that way’s a bust. Come on,” Raelle told Tally, stepping out of the hospital room and heading the opposite way down the hall. At least there were always plenty of ways to get around a hospital.

“Did you kill them?” Tally whispered, referring to the officers.

“No. They’re just… taking an unpleasant nap,” Raelle answered. She knew that ghosting a couple of cops right off the bat would not be the way to start things off with Tally. They turned down another hallway as the commotion behind them began to grow. 

Time was quickly running out. This place was going to be crawling with more cops at any minute. Raelle kept a level head, though. There was always a way out.

As they approached another door, a hand grabbed Raelle’s shoulder. “Wait,” Tally told her.

Though her brow furrowed, Raelle did as requested. Through the glass window, she could see a swarm of officers jog by, prompting her to push Tally back a bit and against the wall as she hugged the wall, too. The group passed by without noticing them, thankfully.

Raelle cast a curious glance in Tally’s direction, but there was no time for a proper explanation. “Nice trick,” she commented. She pushed off the wall and led the way through the door. The main entry to the hospital was in sight, and she hastened their exit.

She was going to bank a right outside of the hospital, but Tally grabbed her arm and steered her left. “We should go this way,” the redhead told her.

Again, Raelle didn’t argue. She ushered Tally along faster, hoping to put some quick distance between them and the hospital. They had only made it halfway down the street when she could hear sirens screeching in the other direction. Had they gone right, they would have run right into more emergency personnel.

“How’d you manage that?” Raelle asked, in regards to how the redhead steered them out of danger.

“I just… saw it,” Tally replied. “Like how I saw you and a few others in my dreams.”

“Okay, so you know things,” Raelle reasoned. That was Tally’s gift. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad having another one around after all. Especially if Tally could warn them against danger that was coming.

She ushered Tally further along, until they came to a small, twenty-four hour convenience store. Inside they went, Raelle’s eyes sweeping over the place. She went to a display of sunglasses, grabbing a pair for Tally, then grabbed a hat hanging next to it. On her way to the counter, she picked up some snacks. The items were quickly paid for, and she handed the hat and glasses off to Tally. “Put these on. And before you say anything, yes, I know it’s dark out.”

Tally did as she was told, and took the bag of snacks that Raelle thrust into her hands on their way out of the shop. With her hands free, Raelle swung her bag around to her front so that she could pull a cell phone out. They needed travel arrangements.

As she and Tally walked down the street, Raelle pulled up one of the contacts named only “AA” in the list. When it began to ring, she brought the phone to her ear. The other end only rang twice before it was answered, and Raelle had a rapid-fire conversation in Spanish with the man on the other end of the call. Her tone was clipped, demanding. There was no time for the man to argue or try and talk circles around her.

The conversation only lasted two minutes, but Raelle got what she wanted. After hanging up, she briefly stopped and dropped the phone on the ground. The heel of her boot connected with it, shattering the device.

“What are you doing?” Tally asked in surprise.

“Destroying the phone so it can’t be traced back to us,” Raelle stated the obvious. She scooped up most of the pieces of broken metal and plastic, then dumped them into a nearby trash can. “Come on, we have to get to the train station.”

“You never have told me where we’re going. I can’t just… leave,” Tally told her.

“You have to. If you go back to the hospital, if you go home, they are going to drag you into some facility where you’ll be a scientist’s pin cushion for years to come,” Raelle explained harshly, not a drop of sympathy in her voice. 

“But… my mom…”

“Your mom will get over it.” Perhaps Raelle was being a little too blunt, but she needed Tally to understand that there was no going back.

“She lost my dad, her sisters, I’m all she has left.”

Raelle stopped walking again, turning to face the redhead. “If you go back, if you contact her, they will find you. And if they find you, that means they might find us, which I can’t let happen. I’m sorry, but the life you knew doesn’t exist anymore. You died last night, Tally, the police that worked the mugging know it. The doctors and nurses that helped you in the hospital know it. The hospital staff know that you've only got a scar to show for it now, instead of a gaping wound. If you disappear now, come with me, the others and I will protect you. If you go back, we can’t do anything for you.”

A moment of silence fell between them, as Tally tried to grapple with the truth. Eventually, her shoulders slumped. “Okay.”

Raelle might have felt a twinge of guilt for upsetting the young woman, had she not already had so much of it weighing her down. “We need to get to the train station. There’s a contact there that can get us on the next train to Germany.”

“We’re going to Germany?” Tally asked.

“That’s where the others are,” Raelle nodded. And once she had everyone back together, safe, then maybe she could breathe again.

Until that point, she navigated the London streets with Tally at her side. She was careful to avoid as many cameras as they could possibly manage, doubling back once or twice to confuse anyone trying to watch them. Anymore, one could never be too careful. 

Thanks to the late hour, they were in between rushes at St. Pancras. The station was thankfully not all that busy. Raelle led Tally through the building, heading for the lost luggage stall. A woman was there working, scrolling away on her phone as she chewed on her gum rather loudly.

“A mutual friend said to come see you,” she told the attendant.

The young woman glanced up. “You Collar?” she asked.

“Yep.”

She heaved out a sigh, plenty of attitude to spare, pocketing her phone. She reached into a drawer, pulling out a couple of badges. “Come with me.” She stepped out around the desk and walked them across the platform. “I already told the car attendant that you’re taking a couple unbooked seats. If anyone asks, you’re company personnel en route to your next job. These badges will make you look more official.”

Raelle took the badges, handing one over to Tally. “And the train is headed for Germany?”

“Hamburg,” the woman confirmed. “You’re on your own from there.”

“Good enough for me.” Raelle didn’t feel the need to thank the woman as she stepped up onto the car that they had been taken to. Their mutual friend would see the woman’s trouble paid for.

“Very back of this car, last two seats on the left.”

Raelle only nodded, making her way into the passenger car. There were a couple of small groups that they’d be sharing the car with toward the front, but hopefully no one else would be boarding. She didn’t want to spend a long train ride with a bunch of other people around.

“I’m good with the window seat… or the aisle. Either one,” Tally piped up as they closed in on the seats they’d been instructed to take.

Raelle turned and gave the redhead a pointed look, then motioned for her to take the window seat. She heard the faintest of happy little squeals as Tally all but jumped to take the seat. Raelle rolled her eyes as she settled into the aisle seat.

Tally, now brimming with energy, only barely managed to contain herself until the train lurched forward. It seemed that she understood they needed the noise of traveling the rail to help mask any kind of conversation they could have. “You promised me answers,” she stated, looking over at Raelle.

“I didn’t _promise_ anything,” Raelle shrugged. The way that Tally gave her puppy dog eyes made her roll her eyes again. “Alright, alright. Ask away.”

“What’s happening?” Tally quickly rambled off. “Who are you? What are you? What am I?”

“Whoa, whoa. Slow down.” Raelle would have preferred to let one of the others do all this explaining. She hoped she could give Tally just enough information to keep her content until they got to Germany. “There have been a lot of names for us over the years. But we’re just… us.”

“So, you… we, can’t die?”

“We all gotta go sometime,” Raelle answered with a shrug. “But our time is longer than others. Seems some of us have a lot longer than others.”

Tally squinted at her. “How old are you?”

“Who can remember?” Raelle dodged away from the question.

While Tally didn’t seem to totally buy that, she did move on. So many questions, so little time. “How many others are there? What is it you do?”

Raelle sighed, leaning her head back against the seat and closing her eyes. “There are three others, besides me. We stop bad things from happening. Or… at least, we used to. Now, there are too many bad things happening in the world for us to keep up with.”

“So… you’re good guys?” It appeared that Tally wasn’t going to slow down her hunt for answers any time soon.

“Depends on the century, and depends on which side of history you’re on. We do what we think is right at the time,” Raelle answered. “Now, I am exhausted. You should try and get some rest, too. Or just let me rest – I don’t really care. I’ll tell you more once we’re back with the others.”

“Okay,” Tally replied softly.

“There’s time for all your questions,” Raelle assured the redhead. “There’s always time.”


	4. Chapter 4

From Hamburg, Raelle and Tally caught a ride to the small municipality of Rehlingen. They had to travel on foot after that, following the road out of town until they veered off into the wilderness. Raelle knew the land so well, she could find her way in her sleep. The summer heat made the overgrown grass tough, and she wasn’t sure that she liked how easily it broke and left a trail behind them. 

They’d have to put together a plan and move to another safe house soon. With the Camarilla hunting them and U.S. soldiers knowing their secret, they needed to be ghosts more than ever.

“Where, um… are we going?” Tally eventually asked, trudging along behind Raelle.

They’d made it to the Lopau river and were now following the western bank heading south. “A safe house,” Raelle answered. “We’ll be there soon.”

“We’re literally out in the middle of nowhere,” Tally pointed out.

“That’s the point. Sometimes you hide in plain sight, and sometimes you just plain hide.” Now wasn’t exactly the time for hiding in plain sight. Not if they were actively being hunted. If they could stop the Camarilla, they might be able to go back to the way things were. The military could still prove to be a problem, though.

When they came to a tributary of the river, Raelle hung a right and followed the smaller waterway west. The forest around them was growing denser, the further they strayed from the main branch of the river. Here, it would be much harder to follow their trail. The tough grass gave way to softer underbrush between the trees. 

They found the end of the tributary and kept going for about twenty more yards. Even from the bank of the water, it couldn’t be seen, but out of nowhere a stone wall jutted up out of the forest. It was tall enough to not be seen over, ivy and all manner of other flora growing over it and through the cracks. It hadn't been properly maintained in decades, purposely left to look abandoned.

Raelle followed the stone until she came to an iron gate that looked ready to collapse at any moment. Still, it managed to hang on as she pushed it open with a horrid squeaking sound. She closed it again and wrapped an old chain around it to anchor it closed before heading for the old stone building within the wall’s confines.

The building looked like it had been built at least a hundred years ago, but could have easily been two hundred or more years old. A cross stood tall above the roof, and a few crumbling grave markers littered the yard around the walkway to the doors.

“What is this place?” Tally asked in wonder.

“Old church. Been abandoned for a long time. Not even on maps anymore,” Raelle told her. It seemed ironic now – they’d died in a church less than 48 hours ago, and now they were hiding out in one. They knew this one was safe, though. No bomb-strapped extremists here.

Raelle swung the wooden front door open once they got to it. Inside, she could hear the others talking and could smell food cooking. She led the way into what used to be the sanctuary, which had been repurposed into a sitting and dining area for them. “Guys,” she called out to the others, sliding her bag off and letting it fall to the stone floor. “Meet Tally Craven.”

Abigail, Adil, and Byron all stopped what they were doing, and their attention all shifted to Tally. The redhead seemed a bit uncomfortable suddenly, but lifted up her hand for a small wave. “Um, hi.”

Byron was the first to walk over to her. “I’m Byron,” he introduced himself, shaking her hand. “Come and sit, you two are right on time. Food’s almost ready.” He herded Tally over to the dining table that sat in the middle of the space, ushering her into a seat. 

“I’m Abigail,” the other woman introduced herself to the newcomer. “We’re glad to have you with us.”

From the stove, Adil turned slightly so that he could look at Tally. “And I’m Adil.”

While the others got their introductions in, Raelle went over to one of the cabinets they had installed and grabbed a bottle of whiskey from it. A great deal of work had been done to this converted church – they had plenty of time for it, after all. Furniture had been brought in, cabinets and countertops lined a kitchen area, and as the modern age came along, they brought in appliances and wired up lights. It couldn’t be seen from the outside, but there were solar panels on the roof to power the electronics inside.

Raelle didn’t bother with a glass, instead taking a long drink from the bottle itself. She’d needed that since Molodi, but finding Tally and getting her off the radar had taken precedence.

A gentle hand was suddenly on her arm. “You good?” Abigail asked quietly. It was always her way of checking in.

Raelle finished her long draught of alcohol before responding. “I’m good.”

Abigail’s concern was evident, but she didn’t debate Raelle’s opinion of her state of being. “Let’s eat. Then we should all get some rest. It’s been a long couple of days.”

Raelle merely nodded. A liquid meal would have been preferable, but if Abigail was already concerned, she didn’t want the others catching on. Still, she elected to lean on one of the cabinets to eat, rather than joining the others as they gathered around the table. The meal started in silence, and Tally was obviously more interested in those around her than the food they had placed in front of her.

“I’ve seen you all in my dreams,” Tally finally broke their silence.

“It happens until we all meet,” Adil nodded. “Like… a way for the universe to show us how to find one another.”

“So… like fate?” Tally asked.

“Ah, a romantic,” Byron sounded thoroughly pleased. “Unlike some grumps around here.” His gaze pointed directly at Raelle, and she rolled her eyes at him. “Yes, just like fate.”

“You’re the fastest one that we’ve found thanks to that fate,” Adil added. “It used to take us years. Abigail was the last, before you.”

Tally’s wide-eyed gaze looked over at Abigail, silently pleading for more of the story. “I died in the War of 1812, running supplies to American troops,” Abigail eventually offered. “It took them about five years to find me.”

Tally’s jaw dropped. “You died… in 1812? No way,” she shook her head. “No way.” She then looked at Byron. “So, you’re even older?”

“Mhm,” Byron nodded. “Siege of Seville, 1247.”

Tally’s attention then turned to Adil, who supplied the information she wanted without having to be prompted. “Northern Qi Dynasty, 577, when the Northern Zhou attacked.”

It was obvious that Tally was in complete awe. Slowly, she looked at Raelle. “And you’re the oldest.”

Raelle lifted her brows, her own gaze dropping to the bowl of food in her hands, trying not to get too defensive. “Yep, sure am.” She didn’t like talking about herself.

The redhead got the message loud and clear: there wasn’t going to be more of an answer than that. “So, we really never die?”

“Well, to a point,” Adil told her, leaning back in his chair. He lifted a cup of wine, but finished speaking before taking a drink. “We can come back from death innumerable times, but eventually it runs out.”

“There have been three of us that died,” Raelle’s tone was curt, hoping to end this line of conversation before they got further into it than she would have liked. The others could talk about it as much as they wanted, just not around her. “We don’t know when or why the healing is going to stop, but… we all gotta go sometime.” It was just like she’d told Tally on the train.

The room fell to silence, no one knowing how to follow up Raelle’s less than polished words. “It’s a lot to take in,” Byron was the one to finally speak. “And we’ve all had a really long few days. I think some actual rest will do us all some good. Come on, Tally, I’ll show you where.”

As Tally and Byron vacated the table, heading into the back room, Abigail looked at Raelle expectantly. The blonde knew what she wanted without the need for a verbal exchange. “Go on,” she told the other woman. She picked up the bottle and saluted Abigail with it. “I’m good. Besides, there aren’t enough beds back there, now.”

Bottle in hand, Raelle turned and went back to the sitting area, dropping into an old French Victorian chair. Books were piled around a small TV on the bureau in front of her. The whole place was piled with relics, books, and weapons they’d gathered over the years. None of their truly valuable items were here, though. Not in a place that was still considered out in the open.

Raelle slumped back in the chair, one hand pressed to her forehead as the other held on to the bottle. Her fingers rubbed at her temple while she stared nothing. Sleep would have been beneficial, but that age-old restlessness wouldn’t let her go. To combat it, she nursed on the alcohol in her hand.

She wasn’t sure about the passing of time, how many hours went by while her spine began to ache because of her posture. It was like she was in a daze, mind so far away from her physical body, she would be lucky if it came back. Memories teased the edges of her consciousness – a dank, stone prison cell, chains… a kind of heart break that hurt worse than every single one of her deaths combined.

Suddenly, she heard Tally gasp in the other room, stuttering breaths following as she tried to get enough air. Raelle’s attention snapped to the door, through which she could see the redhead upright in bed. The others startled awake as well.

A light in the bedroom clicked on.

“What is it?”

“What’s wrong?”

“What happened?”

Tally lifted shaking hands to run through her hair. “I-I-I’m sorry. It’s just… a bad dream.”

Raelle knew in her gut that it was more than that. She reached over and set her bottle on the table next to the chair. Slowly, she got up, moving out of sight from the door so she could creep closer to the room unnoticed.

“Tell us what you saw,” Adil requested of the newcomer.

“It was broken, hard to follow. There… there was a woman. She was being tortured,” Tally recounted. “She’d been held in a dungeon, there was someone else – I couldn’t see. Then, they took her out, took her somewhere else. She was so angry.”

Raelle didn’t have to see the others to know the look that they were giving one another. She stopped just outside the door, forehead pressed against the wall as she listened. 

And remembered.

_The stone she sat on was cold, as were the chains wrapped around her. But there was a source of warmth sitting next to her. They were dirty and bloody, but Scylla was still the most beautiful woman she had ever laid eyes on._

_“I’ve never been burned alive before,” Scylla mused. The two flickering torches in the space gave them just enough light to see each other by. “I wonder what it’s going to be like.”_

_“Excruciating,” Raelle suggested. She swung her light blue gaze over at Scylla, offering her a lopsided grin._

_Scylla laughed, half in amusement, half exasperation. She reached over and took Raelle’s hand, bringing bruised and bloodied knuckles to her lips. “Just you and me?”_

_“Always,” Raelle promised. “Until the end.”_

_Suddenly the dungeon door opened, and a man in red robes stepped inside first, bearing a heavily decorated cross. Behind him came several large men. Raelle and Scylla both stood slowly, hoping for an opening to fight their way out._

_However, the men went only to Scylla, undoing the chains that held her to the wall. Three of them grabbed her, pulling her toward the door._

_“You are too powerful together,” the man in the robes said, holding out his cross as if to keep Raelle subdued. “For creatures such as you, your only hope is that we may put an end to your wretched misery.”_

_“No! Let go of me!” Scylla fought against her captors, but the three men were stronger._

_“Scylla!” Raelle screamed, yanking and tugging on her chains. “No! Scylla!”_

_The men wrestled Scylla out of the dungeon as she screamed and flailed. “Raelle! Raelle!”_

_“Scylla!” Raelle could feel the irons around her wrists slicing into her flesh, but she didn’t care. “Scylla!”_

_“May the Lord someday take pity on you, foul creature, and let you leave this world,” the red-robed priest said, then turned on his heel to follow the others out. He shouted protective prayers, to contain the evil spirit that was Scylla._

_As the door to the dungeon closed again Raelle let out what could only be described as a primal roar, a sound that clawed and ripped at her vocal cords, as she still pulled at the chains. It felt as though the very stone around her shook in her fury, dust falling from the ceiling. Slowly, she sunk to her knees as her life left her wrists in warm, crimson waves._

“They burned her. Over and over and over, she felt like it was never going to stop,” Tally told them, her breath still coming in troubled shudders. “And when it finally stopped, they left her in complete darkness. She fought and fought against the chains that held her, fought through starving to death, fought through dying after bleeding out when she pulled too hard on her wrists or ankles. She was so angry, so consumed by the darkness.”

The silence was deafening after Tally stopped. “Scylla,” Byron’s voice cracked. “Her name was Scylla.”

Raelle closed her eyes against the hot stinging of tears that threatened her, feeling her heart shatter at the mention of the name.

“Raelle had been alone for over a thousand years,” Adil continued when it seemed Byron couldn’t. “Scylla was the first immortal that she found. By the time Raelle finally got to her, Scylla had given up. But, together, they were..." Wherever that train of thought was going trailed away, and he shifted track. "Back then, it was just Raelle and Scylla. They had a unique bond, stronger than the rest of us can ever know. They traveled the world together, fought countless battles side by side.”

“They got caught up in the Spanish Inquisition,” Byron took the story back over, bringing it back around to what Tally had seen. “They’d been trying to free innocent people that were being tried and got caught themselves. When the Inquisition accused them of witchcraft and sentenced them to death, and they couldn’t die… the Inquisition considered themselves proved right.”

“They were sentenced over and over again,” Adil said quietly.

There was a long pause. “After Raelle escaped, we spent years looking for Scylla.” Byron’s tone was somber, he was trying to keep his emotions from spilling over. 

What he didn’t tell Tally was the fact that those were bloody years – bloody centuries. Raelle was so angry, and not even Adil and Byron could stop her. So many people involved with the Inquisition felt the blonde’s insatiable wrath. It was a dark time.

“We never found her.” Adil paused a beat. “Raelle’s never forgiven herself for what happened. She carries the guilt of losing Scylla - of her death - to this day.”

“I wish I had known her,” Abigail spoke after the guys had finished.

Raelle shoved herself off of the wall, turning and stepping into the doorway. Her eyes were ringed in red, though she had refused to let a single tear fall. “That’s enough,” she told them. Abigail, Adil, and Byron all refused to look at her – they knew better than to talk about Scylla.

“I can feel her pain,” Tally announced, the only one to look up and meet blue eyes. “She feels so angry.”

“ _Felt_ ,” Raelle corrected in a sharp tone. “Scylla died. That’s what she _felt_.”

Tally looked down like a scolded child. The conversation died right then and there. At least, part of it did.

“How did you know those things?” Abigail questioned Tally.

“She knows things,” Raelle answered, knowing the redhead wouldn’t have a response. “That’s her gift. She kept us from running into cops when we were leaving the hospital. She could see them coming before they got to us.”

Tally nodded as the others glanced at her, as if to confirm what Raelle said.

“Well… that’s handy,” Abigail stated, impressed. “Took you long enough to come along.”

Raelle heaved out a rough breath as she turned away from the room. If she hadn’t been tired before, she was absolutely exhausted now. The first clear memory of Scylla she had in decades, and it was that one.

Goddess, she was so _tired_.

She went back to where she’d left her bottle of whiskey, picking it up to drain the last gulp of liquid inside. Before she managed to swallow, there was a strange beeping sound that echoed in the silence of the building. It made Raelle gag as the liquid went down her throat unpleasantly. The source of the little ‘ding’ had been a laptop left open on the table.

“Abi?” Raelle called.

The woman was already on her way out of the bedroom, brows furrowed deeply. The other three crowed around the bedroom door. “It’s fully encrypted,” Abigail told Raelle. “No one should be able to find us.”

Raelle walked over as Abigail sat down at the laptop. Peering over her shoulder, Raelle saw that a message had come up. Reading what was within, Raelle nearly came out of her skin.

_We erased the footprint you left in London. Saw you headed for Germany. We need to talk._

_Frankfurt. Tomorrow, 8 pm. Brockhaus Fountain._

_\- Quartermaine_

“Fuck,” Raelle growled. “Fuck. Fuck. _Fuck_.”

“Okay, this looks bad,” Abigail admitted. “But, she said they erased whatever footage there was in London.”

“So, we owe her a fucking favor,” Raelle shoved herself away from the table. There was no stopping her need to pace. “This is why we stay out of government shit. This is why I kept saying we have to stop. Sooner or later, someone was going to find us, and they did.”

“Okay, let’s just take a breath.” Byron came into the room, hands up to help diffuse Raelle’s irritation. “There’s no use jumping to conclusions. We don’t even know what she wants.”

“It’s the military!” Raelle’s voice rose. “They want what we have! They want to use us up until there’s nothing left! They will throw us all in cages and poke and prod and torture us until dying will be a relief. You don’t know what that’s like! None of you know what it’s like!”

An uneasy quiet overtook the room after Raelle’s rant. The blonde was breathing heavier than normal, unable to stop her pacing. It was the need to run, the need to really, truly disappear. Running had been so much easier when the world wasn’t so small.

“Fuck!” Raelle spat out the curse one more time. If the meeting wasn’t honored, she had no doubt Quartermaine would come and find them. Any safe house they ended up in would be compromised; it would be a game of hide-and-seek and they would never be able to stop. She went over and grabbed her rucksack to start packing. “I’m going to Frankfurt.”

“Wait, we should all go,” Adil argued.

“Not together,” Raelle snapped at him. She was roiling with energy in a way that the others hadn’t seen in a long time. “I go first. Meet with Quartermaine. I’ll deal with it, if it’s a problem.” Her words were punctuated with more meaning as she grabbed a pair of pistols, burying them into a pocket in the bag. A couple extra clips of ammunition went in with them. “And if it’s a setup, then they won’t get you guys, too.”

“If it is a setup, then you’ll have no one to back you up,” Abigail pointed out.

“I am not losing anyone else.” Raelle spun on her heel, eyes full of fury looking over the other four. “If it’s a setup, you get the fuck out of there. You go to the cave and you stay there. You wait them out, understand? You protect Tally, and you protect each other.”

When no one else argued with her, Raelle finished packing her bag. Extra clothes, money, and a different set of fake identification all got piled into the rucksack. And in case things really went sideways, Raelle grabbed the soft guitar case that was propped up next to the bureau. There wasn’t an instrument inside it, though. No, it held her ax. The bag itself was a deterrent, something that everyone knew what it was and wouldn’t ask what was inside.

With everything packed, Raelle looked at her watch. It was nearly three in the morning. It felt like it should have been much later, or perhaps earlier… depending on how you looked at it. She had seventeen hours to get to Frankfurt, which was more than enough.

“You four are on a twelve hour delay,” she decided. Raelle needed plenty of time to either clean up the mess that had been made, or to make sure that if it was a trap, it would already be sprung and done by the time the others made it to Frankfurt. “I’ll send you details for a hotel room when I get there. If you get there and I’m gone, you get out and go to the cave, and you wait out this shit storm. Do you understand?”

There was a chorus of agreements around the room.

“Good,” Raelle sighed. She looked them all over once more, then turned to leave without saying goodbye. She hated saying goodbye – had never seen the point of it. And she wasn’t going to start saying it now.

There was a determination as Raelle left the others behind. She was ready for a fight, truth be told. It had been years, decades, maybe centuries since she felt that kind of buzz. It had been just as long since she felt her own energy so amplified. But she explained it away in her own mind as being so close to being so far out in the open that they’d never have any hope of falling off the radar again.

After heading back to the road that she and Tally had walked along get to the safe house, Raelle managed to hitchhike a couple of times to get herself to Soltau. She arrived in the city early enough that she had to wait for the first train out to Frankfurt. Given that it was the first trip, the train was heavily booked, but Raelle had no other choice but to claim a seat on it.

Four hours and a half hours later, she was in the city where Quartermaine wanted to meet. Raelle found herself the cheapest hotel within walking distance to the Brockhaus Fountain and got a room for the night. From her window, she could see the square where the fountain was. It was an open space, like the first time she met the soldier. This time, there would be no back up covering her with a sniper rifle – only a gun in her own hand, in case Quartermaine had ill intentions.

Checking the clock, Raelle saw that she still had plenty of time before she was meant to meet the soldier. A shower was in order, and maybe some actual sleep in an actual bed. Before heading into the bathroom, she took the time to grab the two pistols out of her bag and place them around the room. One went into the drawer of an accent table by the front door, the other was placed under the pillow on her bed. Raelle pulled the dagger out of her boot, laying it on top of a dresser by the bathroom door. Lastly, the guitar case with her ax in it was placed upright against the wall by the bed. Just about wherever she ended up in the room, there would be a weapon within reach.

Finally, Raelle went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. The hot water was soothing, slowly easing away her many jitters. Relaxing wasn’t something she took for granted anymore, not when it had become so hard to just breathe. She took advantage of it while she could.

About twenty minutes later – the longest shower she’d taken in who knew how long – Raelle stepped out and dried off. Having brought a change of clothes in with her, she got dressed again, the cloth sticking to her damp skin. She re-braided her wet hair in order to maximize the amount of time that she could sleep.

Stepping out of the bathroom, Raelle turned and paused. Something was amiss. The dagger was missing from where she’d placed it on the dresser.

An old, yet familiar static charge crawled its way up her spine – a feeling she only had when a certain person was nearby.

Suddenly, there was a pinch on the left side of her back. Raelle blinked once, then looked down. Blue eyes focused in on a blade protruding from her chest, right where her heart was. Her own blood dripped from the unforgiving steel.

Her vision began to tunnel.

“Hello, my love,” a voice purred into her ear from behind.

 _That_ voice.

“Scylla,” Raelle choked out before the world went black.


	5. Chapter 5

When Raelle came to, she was flat on her back on the floor, and she felt pressure on her chest. Her eyes opened and it took a moment for her vision to clear. Slowly, a form took shape above her and came into focus.

“Scylla.”

“You kept my dagger all this time. How thoughtful,” Scylla commented, looking at the still-bloody weapon in her hand. She had one foot planted on Raelle’s chest to keep her down. “Too bad you didn’t just keep me, instead.”

Raelle’s mind was reeling, struggling to reconcile what her eyes were telling her she was seeing, what her ears told her she heard. “How-“

“-am I alive?” Scylla finished the question for her with a sneer. “Long, terrible story. Probably the saddest story ever told.”

It felt like the world was tilting at a strange angle. Everything Raelle had known about the last five hundred years was turned upside down. She couldn’t rationalize how this was possible. Had the millennia finally caught up with her? Did her mind finally lose grip on reality?

“They took you,” Raelle stated. “After I escaped, I tried to find you. I stopped feeling you, Scylla. You were gone.”

Scylla leaned down, pointing the blade at Raelle’s face. “I wasn’t _gone_. You left me!” she accused. “You left me with them! You forgot about me!”

Anger was rolling off of Scylla in waves, sparking a flame that ignited Raelle’s own long-buried feelings. The accusation that Raelle left Scylla, forgot about her, was a step too far. Raelle suddenly swung one of her arms up, using her forearm to hit the inside of Scylla’s leg that was holding her down. The quick movement had its intended effect, knocking Scylla’s foot off of her chest. Without missing a beat, Raelle slid herself down, out from between Scylla’s legs, and bounced to her feet behind the woman.

Scylla swung around, brandishing the dagger that she had wielded with deadly purpose for centuries. Raelle blocked the incoming blow with her arm, shoving the weapon away from herself again. 

“Come on, Rae, you can do better than that,” Scylla goaded wickedly. She slashed at Raelle again, following it up with several quick jabs.

Raelle’s movements were smooth as she blocked and twisted away from the attacks, though her irritation was growing exponentially. “Scylla, stop,” she demanded.

“Like you stopped looking for me?” Scylla ground out, unrelenting.

“I looked for you for centuries!” Raelle spat back, temper flaring beyond her control. Rather than staying on the defensive, she traded quick blows with Scylla. The two moved around the room, their swings, blocks, and dodges may as well have been choreographed. They knew each other so intimately, the slightest flexing of a muscle was a dead giveaway to what was coming next. Furniture got knocked over or shoved out at the way as they sparred.

“Do you know what they did to me, Rae?” Scylla’s use of her shortened, pet name was delivered as a mockery. She didn’t miss a beat as she tried to stab Raelle again. “They burned me, over and over again. Weeks, years, decades – they burned me. And when they finally gave up, or forgot about me? They left me there, in the darkness. _You_ left me there!”

The energy in the hotel room was practically crackling with electricity. It almost felt like the air just before Abigail called up a terrible storm. But it was just the two of them – Scylla’s anger and everything Raelle had been holding in for five hundred years. They shifted around pieces of furniture, neither one able to get the upper hand on the other.

“I looked for you!” Raelle shouted, not caring how thin the walls of the hotel were. In a place like this, shouting was likely to be expected from clientele. “I looked for _centuries_!”

“And you gave up on me!” Scylla shot back, voice raised as well.

“I hunted down the Camarilla! Every single one I could find, for any information on where they took you.” By the time the Camarilla were snuffed out single-handedly by the blonde, they regretted ever crossing her. It seemed those lessons were lost to time, now that they were back.

“That doesn’t change a thing. It wasn’t good enough!” Scylla shook her head. “You promised it was just you and me – to the end. No matter what happened. You broke your promises and you abandoned me!”

“You think you were the only one they tortured? Burned?” Raelle demanded. “It wasn’t like they just let me go after they took you away!”

She could see the surprise in Scylla’s eyes as this time when the woman came back around with the blade, Raelle let it past her defenses. She let the dagger connect with her arm, directing Scylla’s momentum toward her other hand. The blade dragged along her skin, but the pain was nothing more than an afterthought. Raelle grabbed Scylla’s wrist with bruising force - a fast, hard twist forcing the dagger to fall and clatter to the floor.

“That’s enough. We’re done,” Raelle told Scylla.

But Scylla wasn’t done.

Raelle had to duck to the side quickly, to avoid the punch thrown at her face. She grabbed Scylla’s arm, trying to whirl her around and pin it behind her back. Scylla was always a slippery one though and slid right back out of Raelle’s grasp. Without the threat of a blade, they threw fists and elbows at one another in close quarters; tried to kick out one another’s feet only to spin around each other as if it were a deadly tango.

One sloppy right hook from Scylla, a little too high, a little too wide, was all it took for Raelle to finally find a real opening. She took advantage of Scylla being off balance, slamming her back against the nearest wall and pinning her there with her body. Scylla let out a frustrated yell as she struggled to break free, but Raelle held fast.

“Damn it, Scylla! I’m _sorry_!” Raelle ground out through grit teeth. “Okay? I’m sorry!”

A loud crack split the air in the room, the force of the slap jerking Raelle’s head to the side. It seemed to startle them both enough to stop struggling. Raelle met Scylla’s furious blue glare as they both tried to catch their breath, chests heaving after the physicality altercation. Raelle’s lips trembled, a mass of emotions swelling inside her – none of which she could rightly identify individually.

The moment stretched out between them, both caught up in whatever was going on in their minds.

Without warning, Raelle lunged forward, her lips covering Scylla’s. The response she got was immediate, Scylla’s mouth hot and greedy on hers. She felt Scylla take fistfuls of her shirt near the collar, but wasn’t sure if Scylla was trying to pull her closer or push her away. Perhaps a bit of both.

Their bodies shifted against one another, the need to work out pent up frustration coiling around them both like bright, white heat.

One of Raelle’s hands lifted to the back of Scylla’s neck, blunt nails scratching at the base of her skull. The other grabbed at Scylla’s hip, pulling her in even though there was no way they could be pressed any closer. Scylla’s hands tugged relentlessly at the fabric of Raelle’s shirt until she could yank the piece of clothing off and throw it away from them. Their lips crashed back together after the interruption. Without pause, her nails raked down Raelle’s back with enough force that the blonde was certain blood had been drawn.

There were no soft words and gentle touches like it used to be. It was all fury and passion and desperation.

Raelle scrambled to undo the belt that Scylla wore, blindly fumbling with the button and zipper of her pants afterward. She needed just enough room, but impatience was impeding her effort. Her frustrated growl was lost against Scylla’s lips, but finally Raelle was able to shove her hand down the front of her pants.

By the goddess, Scylla was so _ready_ for her.

Scylla groaned into Raelle’s mouth at the sudden intrusion of the blonde’s insistent fingers. Her hips canted forward, though, eager for more. One of Scylla’s hands traveled to Raelle’s shoulder, gripping tight enough that her nails dug harshly into Raelle’s flesh. Her other lifted higher, to grab a handful of blonde hair and tug back hard enough to make Raelle grunt. No verbal explanation was given, but she guided Raelle’s attention to her neck.

Raelle took the direction, her lips finding Scylla’s pulse point before biting down on the spot. It elicited a harsh moan from Scylla, as her hips moved in time with Raelle’s fingers. A hand on the back of Raelle’s head kept her by Scylla’s neck. It was plenty to keep her occupied – she bit patches of skin hard enough to leave teeth marks and sucked in other places to leave dark colored hickeys. Raelle left a smattering of red and purple in her wake.

“Harder,” Scylla growled into Raelle’s ear. Her breath hitched in her throat as Raelle complied.

Raelle had no hope of hearing her name tumble out of Scylla, but she still wanted to taste the fiery ecstasy on her lips. She leaned up again, their mouths meeting and melding, all clashing teeth and tongues. Scylla’s hips stuttered before she tensed, fingers digging into Raelle’s shoulder and arm. A rough moan passed between them as Raelle relentlessly pushed Scylla through the waves of pleasure.

When their bodies finally stilled, they were sharing air and panting as Raelle rested her forehead against Scylla’s. Her eyes were shut tight, trying to hold in the feeling of being with Scylla again. She still wasn’t totally sure that this wasn’t a figment of her imagination, despite the fact that she could feel the other woman there with her.

The sharpest edges of their feelings had been dulled, at least a little. It allowed them to linger for a moment, but too soon Scylla was moving. She refastened her pants, pushing Raelle far enough away that she could step away from the wall. All the marks that Raelle had left on her neck had already healed over, as if they’d never been there in the first place.

“Scyl,” Raelle called after her, confused, as she watched the woman bend to retrieve the dagger from where it had fallen to the floor.

Scylla didn’t offer a response, though. She tucked the dagger into her belt as she headed wordlessly for the door.

“They’re back.” Raelle’s statement made Scylla’s hand hover over the doorknob. She had a right to know. “The Camarilla – they’re back. They’re hunting us again.”

Still, Scylla said nothing. Her hand dropped to the doorknob and she was gone in a flash, leaving Raelle feeling like there was a black hole inside her. Her heart ached in a way she hadn’t known in years, a kind of bone-aching loneliness that had taken lifetimes to learn to ignore. 

Raelle stared at the door, hoping to will Scylla to come back. But, there was nothing. Sniffing once, she glanced down and located her shirt, scooping it up into her hand. As she looked around, she saw the absolute disarray that the room was in. What did it matter, though? What did anything else matter when she had just found out Scylla was still alive? Had been alive this entire time?

She looked back up at the door. Should she follow Scylla? Try to bring her back?

They needed to talk, not just try and kill each other fruitlessly and fuck against the wall.

If Scylla wanted to talk, though, they wouldn’t have ended up in the position they’d been in. No matter how badly Raelle _needed_ them to talk this out, now – apparently – wasn’t the time. Running after her now would ultimately send Scylla further away.

How long had Scylla been locked away? Where had she been held? Raelle had scoured everywhere that the Inquisition operated. She had done terrible things to terrible people to try and leverage information out of them. 

She kept looking, kept digging, until the day she couldn’t feel Scylla anymore. Raelle had never really been able to explain it, the way she simply _knew_ if Scylla was okay or if she was in trouble, the way she knew when Scylla was near. The day Raelle stopped feeling that connection, the very moment it happened, it felt like the world came to a crashing end. It was a pain worse than every single death she had ever endured.

And now, shortly after finding out that Scylla was, in fact, alive… it felt like Raelle had lost her all over again.

The blonde took a step forward and let herself fall face first onto the bed that had been knocked crooked. She couldn’t be bothered to fix it. Slowly, she rolled onto her back, splayed out as she stared at the ceiling. Her shirt laid over her abdomen, all but forgotten.

Her mind went back centuries. She mulled over everything that had happened leading up to when she and Scylla were captured, all the moments they spent in captivity, and every year she spent looking for Scylla. Had she missed something? Was Scylla _right there_ and she hadn’t known? Would her guilt, now compounded on itself for having stopped looking, ever go away?

Goddess, how was any of this possible?

So caught up in the memories, Raelle didn’t realize how much time had passed until her watch began to beep at her. She’d set an alarm to wake her in time to get to the fountain. The beeping startled her back to reality and she swore vehemently as she sat up on the bed. Outside, the sun was beginning to set.

And Scylla hadn’t come back.

Raelle tugged her shirt back on, grabbing a jacket and pistol on her way to the door. There was no time to rearrange the furniture back to the way it should have been. She’d only planned for just enough time to get to the square. If hotel staff came knocking, they were just gong to have to find a mess and she'd deal with it later.

The summer evening was cooling down – not so much that the jacket was necessary, but it also wasn’t completely out of place. It was more to cover up the fact that she was armed, anyway. It was strange, though, not to feel the weight and press of Scylla’s dagger in her boot. Even that little change, that little loss, amplified her feelings of loneliness.

As she got to the square, she picked out Quartermaine’s rigidity without even trying. Raelle could have spotted her a mile away. Stuffing her hands into the pockets of her jacket, she crossed the square and took a seat on the bench where the soldier was waiting for her.

Neither one spoke immediately.

“So… who are you?” Quartermaine finally asked.

“Already told you my name,” Raelle’s answer was clipped.

Quartermaine looked at her out of the corner of her eye. “You know what I mean.”

“Mm, no, I really don’t.” Raelle wasn’t going to give up an ounce of information.

The soldier let out a sigh, laying a folded newspaper on the bench between them. “Look inside.”

Raelle didn’t move right away, but eventually reached over and grabbed the paper. She unfolded it, finding a folder inside. Within the file was… a disturbing amount of information. There were old black and white photos, drawings, newspaper articles, and print outs of passages from ancient texts. The subject of it all? Raelle and the others.

She grit her teeth, as part of their history was set right before her.

“Corporal Moffett is _extremely_ good at her job. That right there is just what she found since her return to Fort Salem, based solely on what she heard the Camarilla talking about,” Quartermaine explained.

Raelle shut the newspaper, hiding away the evidence that the soldier had brought before her. Her fingers itched for the gun tucked away at the small of her back. Taking out Quartermaine wouldn’t be the end of this, unfortunately. She’d have to go to Fort Salem, eliminate the soldiers that they had rescued.

“No one outside of my team has seen any of that,” Quartermaine continued a moment later. “They made sure I knew you didn’t want to see anyone from the military again, mentioned the cosmic scales and how they would tip out of our favor. So, I have to assume you came to this meeting armed.”

Raelle finally looked over, eyes practically blazing. “Give me one good reason that I shouldn’t shoot you right here, right now,” she demanded.

Quartermaine was unperturbed, still looking out across the square. “You need help,” she answered calmly. “I may not know exactly who or what the Camarilla are, but they went to the trouble of capturing three of my soldiers to lay an extremely intricate trap to draw you in. Now, they’re a problem for both of us. I can spin this as a terrorist group to sell it to Alder, to get her approval to use our resources in an intervention.”

“Out of the goodness of you heart, right?” Raelle asked. “You want what we have – admit it.”

“I do.” The admission blindsided Raelle, even though she had demanded it. “But not in the way you think. Believe me when I say that I know there are powerful entities in this world that would love to get their hands on you – including the United States military. Unlocking what makes you tick would be the most valuable secret in the world. Priceless.”

Raelle shifted on the bench, giving herself an opening to her weapon. “You’re not making a very good case for yourself.”

Finally, Quartermaine looked at her. “According to the cosmic scales, I owe you one. For saving my soldiers. You got Swythe and Moffett out, and I don’t know exactly what happened with Bridey, but I know that she’s alive because of you.”

“Whatever point you’re trying to make, it better get here quick,” Raelle warned the soldier. “No more cryptic bullshit.”

“The Camarilla are dangerous, willing to plow through whoever they have to, to get to you and your pals. That puts you guys and innocent people in danger. We can help you find them. Help you stop them.”

Raelle scoffed at the offer. “We don’t need help.”

“If it wasn’t for Moffett erasing that footage of you in that London hospital, it would have been all over the UK,” Quartermaine pointed out. “Their authorities would be after you, international authorities too, because they would have been sure you kidnapped Tally Craven. Oh, and we took care of that little radar blip, too. The files on her case and from the hospital just… disappeared.”

Raelle lifted a hand to rub her forehead. A headache was coming on, a rarity that only happened when there was simply too much stress in too short a period of time. “So, you use us to get rid of a dangerous terrorist group, then hand us over to General Alder?”

Quartermaine paused before answering. “That folder is probably… what, barely a minute compared to all your time?” she asked. “Thirty seconds? Maybe ten? Even so, there’s one thing absolutely clear to me. What you do _actually_ helps people. The things you’ve done have a ripple effect on the generations after. I see that, I respect that. When I joined the military, I wanted to help people.”

“Hard to help people when you feed the industrial military complex,” Raelle quipped sharply.

Quartermaine gave her a pointed look. “You and your… friends, whatever you call each other, you’ve clearly done your best to stay on the margins of history. That’s harder now. A lot harder. But, I’m sure you’ve seen the state of the world. It still needs your help.”

Suddenly, Raelle saw where this was going. “So, this is how you think you can help.”

“Some of us don’t have cosmic scales tipped in our favor.” For just a second, Quartermaine’s stoic façade slipped. The humanity in her peeked out. “You can’t hide as well from modern day technology, but we can erase your footprints. We can point you toward people that really need your help.” 

Raelle really wished that she’d packed a bottle of whiskey in her things on her way to Frankfurt. A stop at the nearest liquor store on her way back to the hotel room was going to be in order. First the Camarilla, then Scylla, and now this? Even for someone with thousands of years behind them, it was a lot.

“Why should I believe you?” she asked, some of the fight, some of the anger dissipating from her voice. “Why should I trust you?”

Quartermaine eased up a little bit, too. “Like I said – some of us need to tip the scales back in our favor. And… if I double-crossed you, then they would be forever out of balance.” The soldier looked Raelle over. “And I’m assuming that you don’t need a gun to kill someone, so that’s also a deterrent.”

“Good instinct,” Raelle gave a half nod. She still wasn’t sure about the proposed arrangement. There was no guarantee that Quartermaine wouldn’t turn on them, no guarantee she was even telling the truth in the first place. 

“You’re not comfortable without some kind of leverage,” Quartermaine guessed. “It’s not enough that we know what you’re capable of? That my soldiers owe you their lives, and I owe you for saving them?”

“Not in this day and age. And especially not when you’re tied to the world’s strongest military power, which would have everything to gain by turning us into lab experiments.” Raelle sighed, ready to retreat to the hotel for the night. “Look, this isn’t a decision I’ll make by myself.”

“You need to talk it over, I understand.” Quartermaine reached into her pocket, fully aware that Raelle was eyeing her suspiciously, and pulled out a slip of paper. “This is a secure, private line. Unaffiliated with the military. If you and your pals decide you want help, you give me a call and we’ll work it out.”

Raelle hesitated, then took the piece of paper. “Don’t hold your breath,” she muttered. She didn’t give the soldier a chance to try and sell her case anymore. Instead, Raelle got up and walked away, the newspaper and file tucked under her arm.

On her walk back to the hotel, she spied the exact thing she needed at the moment: a liquor store. Raelle ducked in and got herself a bottle of German whiskey. It didn’t matter to her what the liquid tasted like, so long as it burned on the way down and helped dull everything that she was feeling.

Raelle got back to the hotel after her little detour, and headed up to her room. When she swung open the door, she promptly swore, “ _Fuck_.”

Suddenly, three gun barrels were pointed at her – she had startled Abigail, Byron, and Adil as badly as they had startled her. Tally was merely standing off to the side, wide-eyed and unarmed.

“What the _fuck_ are you four doing here already?” Raelle demanded.

“Rae, what happened here? We assumed they’d come in and grabbed you,” Abigail told her.

“Your room is completely tossed,” Byron added, as if to back up Abigail.

Raelle threw the newspaper at Abigail. “Look inside,” she instructed, walking by the others so she could sit on the bed. The bottle cap came off the whiskey and Raelle took an extra long drink from it.

Abigail opened up the newspaper and found the folder inside. “Guys,” she called the others to her, looking over the information. 

“Scylla’s alive,” Raelle groused out roughly, pulling the bottle away from her lips. “She was here.”

The others could have gotten whiplash, how quickly their attention jerked from the folder to Raelle. “How is that possible?” Adil questioned.

Raelle merely shrugged. “Not like we talked much.”

“Oh, so _that’s_ why this place is a mess,” Byron lifted a brow at her.

“The military gathered that information on us,” Raelle shifted the track of the conversation back to the file she’d been given. “Quartermaine wants to help us track down the Camarilla, said she and those soldiers we saved could help us stay hidden. Help us find people that need our help.”

“What are we going to do about… any of that?” Abigail asked.

Raelle lifted a finger as she took another long drink, then spoke again. “Go get yourselves a couple rooms. We’ll talk about it after I get some damn sleep.”


	6. Chapter 6

Raelle wasn’t sure what time it was, when she got startled awake by loud knocking on her door. Her left hand was still wrapped around a now empty whiskey bottle, and she hadn’t bothered changing before dropping into bed.

“Rae, come on,” Abigail’s voice carried through the door. “It’s almost noon.”

The blonde grumbled, wetting her lips and clearing her dry throat. Her fingers loosened around the bottle, letting it roll out of her hand. It clattered to the floor a second later. Eyes squinting in the sunlight streaming through the window, she looked around until she spied the clock. Okay, so maybe Abigail’s perception of time was spot on.

Another round of persistent knocking. “Raelle. Seriously,” Abigail called.

“‘m coming!” Raelle muttered, swinging her body toward the edge of the bed. She staggered to her feet, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand as she walked across the room. A moment later, she opened the door and let the others in.

“You look like shit,” Byron pointed out, following Abigail into the room. Adil and Tally piled in as well.

“And you’d look better with my boot up your ass,” Raelle quipped.

“So grumpy,” he replied with a chuckle.

“That’s what happens when three assholes wake me up.” Raelle walked over and picked up the whiskey bottle, checking it to see if there happened to be any liquid left inside. Unfortunately, it was bone dry.

“There are four of us,” Abigail informed her.

“Tally’s too new to be on the shit list already.” Raelle glanced over at the redhead, who looked absolutely thrilled to still be on the ‘good list.’

Adil steered them back toward the conversation that needed to be had, “We still need to talk. About the Camarilla, the military… Scylla.”

“Yeah, I don’t have enough to drink for us to have that conversation,” Raelle shook her head.

Adil gave her a pointed look. “Rae. This is serious.”

“Hence the need for something to drink.” Raelle shook the empty bottle in Adil's direction. When everyone gave her some version of an exasperated look, she relented. “Fine, fine. Talk. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

Silence overtook the room as no one seemed to know where to start. Or, they knew where to start and didn't want to upset Raelle more than she already was. Finally, Byron spoke up, “Alright, fine, I know we're all thinking about it… the elephant in the room: Scylla.”

“Alright, what about her?” Raelle's tone was suddenly gruff.

“She's been alive, this whole time. How is that possible?” Adil asked. “Where has she been?”

“You're asking the wrong person. I'm not the knower,” Raelle pointed out, glancing up at Tally. “She's the one that saw it.”

Tally opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out as she looked at the other four immortals.

“It’s alright,” Abigail assured the redhead. “You’re way too new to know how to control what you can do, and even then, none of us would expect you to delve into something like that. Whatever Scylla went through, what you told us last night… it sounds horrible.”

Raelle knew what she had gone through at the hands of the Camarilla, after she and Scylla had been separated. It was something she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy, yet the woman she loved more than anything else in the world had gone through so much worse. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t right. 

Scylla had every right to hate her.

Raelle never should have stopped looking.

“So, what do we do about her?” Adil asked after a short silence.

Raelle scoffed. “What do you mean ‘what do we do?’” she questioned in return. “There’s nothing we can do. She hates us – hates _me_ – for leaving her. Whatever she’s going to do, she’s going to do. If she feels the need to stab me through the heart again, she can.”

“Again?” a chorus of voices spoke in near perfect unison.

“It happens,” Raelle shrugged it off. Being run through the heart was nothing for someone who didn’t seem to be able to die. And truth be told, she was fairly certain that she deserved it.

“Well, since this particular conversation is going nowhere, maybe we should talk about the situation with Quartermaine, maybe? And the Camarilla?” Byron suggested.

“Quartermaine told me that she wants to help us,” Raelle informed the others. “I don’t know if I believe her, though. She’s part of the United States military. If she wanted, they could throw us in cages and that would be it.”

“But, if she knows what we are, she should know that we’d take her out before she ever got the chance,” Abigail tried to argue. "They can't touch us."

Raelle’s temper, holding on by only a single thread, threatened to flare at the blatant hubris. “It’s that kind of attitude that will get us caught.” Her words had plenty of bite to them as she spoke. “If we get too comfortable, get too sure of ourselves, we’re through. I have done everything in my power to keep the rest of you from ever getting caught. But that kind of mindset can and will be our downfall.”

“Okay, so, she has leverage on us, so we find some to use on Quartermaine,” Byron suggested. 

It was a fair suggestion, too. If Raelle was ever going to consider outside help, it would be with leverage against that outside help to make sure they weren’t betrayed. Honor and dignity had next to no place in the modern world. Someone’s word was worth less than the air spent saying it.

“I can try and dig around,” Abigail offered, clearly sobered by the verbal reprimand she had received. She was their resident technology wizard. 

Raelle nodded, “She made it sound like there’s something dark in her past. I’m sure there’s something to be found.”

“And the Camarilla?” Adil was still the steady source of direction for their conversation. 

“They had to lure us out, so they don’t know where we’re at… yet.” Raelle hated to admit that it went the other way, too: they didn’t know where the Camarilla were. That made their situation dangerous. “Still, no one goes anywhere alone. And no one goes anywhere unarmed.”

They couldn’t be too careful with these people that wanted them dead – with people that Raelle knew exactly what lengths they would go to, to try and kill them.

Suddenly, Tally’s attention snapped to the door. “She’s here,” she announced just a scant moment before there were two short knocks on the door.

Raelle already knew, though. She felt that inexplicable prickling at the back of her neck.

A second later, the door swung open and Scylla stepped inside. She perked a brow, seeing everyone gathered. “Looks like I’m late to the party,” she observed dryly. “Unfortunate. I was a little tied up for a while.”

Raelle licked her lips, unable to meet Scylla’s eyes – the weight of her guilt dragging her gaze down. A hush overtook the room, no one having any idea what to do or say. Whatever joyous reunion there could have been was muted by the raging inferno that was Scylla. Raelle was sure the others could feel it as easily as she could.

“Well, this has been real fun,” Scylla deadpanned. “But the children need to leave the room so Mommy and Daddy can have a talk.”

“Wait, which of you is which?” Byron immediately asked, clearly amused.

“I am not a child,” Abigail insisted vehemently.

The glare that Byron received could have sent him to the grave if it were possible. But Scylla elected not to dignify his question with a response, instead opting to speak to Abigail. “All four of you are children.” When the four younger immortals didn’t so much as budge a muscle, Scylla’s stormy blue gaze shifted to Raelle. “ _Make them leave, or I will_.” This time when she spoke, it wasn’t in English – or any language that the others would recognize, for that matter.

“What language is that?” Tally asked in honest wonder.

“They call it Mothertongue,” Byron helpfully supplied the answer. “Their secret ‘Elder Club’ language that they never taught us. It sounds familiar because it’s the root for all modern, Western languages.”

“You two speak a dead language? That’s so cool.” Tally couldn’t keep her bubbling excitement to herself.

“You think that’s cool? Then you should know Beltane and Samhain are celebrations of them.” Byron was more than happy to keep talking, despite the fact that he was getting another dagger-like glare. Even with Scylla’s centuries long absence, he still seemed impervious to those scolding looks. “Beltane for our dear Raelle, full of vibrance and life. And Samhain for Scylla, to honor loved ones who are gone and reconnect with those still with us.” He leaned closer to Tally and added in a loud whisper, “People used to think they were goddesses.”

“Byron!” Raelle barked, startling everyone but Scylla. She heaved out a sigh, lifting a hand to rub her eyes. “Guys, just… go. We’ll finish talking everything over later.”

There was a long enough pause that Raelle thought she was going to have to raise her voice again. Thankfully, Adil got the message, as he was the first to get up from his seat. “Come on. They need to talk,” he said, ushering the others out of the room.

After the door shut, leaving Raelle and Scylla alone, silence stretched out between them. Raelle was focused on her hands, fidgeting with them uncomfortably. She had wanted Scylla to come back, yes. Of course, she did. That didn’t mean she knew what to say or do with herself.

Scylla remained standing not far from the door. Perhaps to make it easier to leave when she was ready. “You can’t even look at me?” she finally asked.

Raelle merely shrugged, eyes downcast. “You were right,” she admitted. “I never should have stopped looking for you.”

“Oh, I know I’m right,” Scylla replied in a tone that Raelle knew all too well. Rarely had it ever been used with her, though. “We apparently have more going on than millenniums’ worth of promises shattered by one act of betrayal, unfortunately.”

“I thought they killed you, Scyl!” Raelle defended herself fiercely, finally looking up at the other woman. “I thought about you every single day. I mourned you, this whole time!”

Scylla pursed her lips, looking away from Raelle. She didn’t offer a response.

Raelle got to her feet, her despair blooming into stormy emotions that, even after so long, could barely be contained. She walked right up to Scylla, making the woman look at her. “More than five hundred years, and you’ve been the only thing I could think about. I thought you were gone, for good, and it was my fault that you were gone. If I could have taken your place, I would have – without a second thought.”

“If our places were switched, I never would have stopped looking for you,” Scylla replied, voice betraying the heaviness of the emotion she felt. “But instead, I had to wait, hoping you would find me. And when I gave up that hope, it turned into hoping that the next time I died, I wouldn’t wake up again.”

The two stared at each other for a long moment, chins trembling, eyes glistening with unshed tears. Time could be so cruel. It had given them each other, and they had one another for lifetimes on top of lifetimes – hundreds, thousands of them. Even the last five centuries, where time wickedly ripped them apart, wasn’t so much compared to the long run of things.

“Let me fix it,” Raelle spoke just barely above a whisper, throat constricting and choking her words.

“Rae.” This time, Scylla said her name without a hint of malice. It was nearly enough to drive Raelle to her knees. “You can’t fix us. Never could. You can only fix _them_ , and they’ve never deserved it. They never deserved anything you gave them.”

“Scyl,” Raelle quietly pleaded. She tentatively lifted a hand, but Scylla pulled away from her.

“This isn’t what I’m here for.” Scylla took a couple steps back from Raelle, but she may as well have put miles between them. “What kind of shit storm have you gotten yourself and the others into?”

Raelle sighed, hand dropping as she tried not to let her disappointment show. “The Camarilla lured us into a trap and used the U.S. military to do it. They took three soldiers captive. Their CO contacted us to retrieve them because the military couldn’t do it.”

“Then you must have gotten sloppy,” Scylla assumed. “Military being able to find you, Raelle? Really? You should know better than that.”

“It gets better,” Raelle sighed. “One of the soldiers works intelligence. Caught some of what the Camarilla were saying and dug up some of our past. The CO brought me a folder with a couple hundred years’ worth of exploits.”

“Goddess, Raelle,” Scylla breathed. It was worse than she ever could have imagined.

Raelle didn’t know what else to say. She knew they were in a bad way. They were _so close_ to being out in the open. The best option was to hole up for a while, let everything blow over. She doubted the others would be content with that. Not with the state of the world. They couldn’t help everyone, but the others would argue there was still good that could be done.

“Supposedly, the CO wants to help us,” Raelle finally offered up.

Scylla lifted a skeptical brow, leveling her with a look. “And you know that’s bullshit, right?” she questioned. “They want to make you comfortable so that they can put you in a cage. Use you up until there’s nothing left.”

Before Raelle could respond, two explosions rocked the building – one right after the other. Instinctively, Raelle grabbed Scylla, tugging her away from the door and pushing her toward the wall. She put her own body between Scylla and the door, shielding the woman from the threat that they couldn’t see. They stared silently at one another, listening for whatever was going on outside the room.

“Where are the others?” Scylla finally asked.

Raelle’s eyes widened. She turned and lunged for the bed, grabbing the pistol from beneath her pillow. Without hesitation, she ran for the door. Smoke billowed out of a room just down the hall, filling the air near the ceiling with its murky blackness. There was no one else in the hall, whoever had created the explosions apparently having already fled.

Raelle ran to the room, finding only one person inside. It was Tally, and it looked like she took a direct hit by whatever explosive devices were used. She was in bad shape. The whole room was blown apart.

Abigail, Adil, and Byron were all gone.

She barely heard Scylla come into the room behind her, as she tucked the pistol into her waistband. Raelle quickly went to Tally’s body, slumped against the wall, kneeling down in front of her. She reached forward with both hands, cupping the redhead’s cheeks and lifting her head upward.

“Come on, Tal. Wake up,” she bid. The first few times could take longer, but the damage… it had Raelle worried. 

She waited, but nothing happened.

Raelle shifted closer so that she could rest her forehead against Tally’s. “You’re too new not to wake up. Come on, Tally. I need you to wake up.”

“Raelle-“ Scylla started to speak, but quickly cut herself off as Tally groaned.

Suddenly, the redhead drew in a sharp breath, head tilting back as she shifted and jerked. “Oh my god,” she panted. “Oh my god. Everything hurts. Ah, it hurts so much.”

Raelle kept her hands in place to offer comfort and strength. “I know it does. I know. Just breathe with me, Tally, okay? Just breathe,” she soothed, trying to keep the young woman focused. “Nice and slow, in and out. It’s going to take a couple minutes, but the pain will stop.”

“Does it always hurt so bad?” Tally asked, on the verge of hyperventilating. She shifted more, her body instinctively trying to get away from the source of pain.

“Tally, look at me,” Raelle requested. She waited until dark eyes met hers. “Good. Just breathe. It’s going to be okay. Tell me what happened.”

Tally took a shuddering breath, trying to focus. “We were all talking. We were talking about you and Scylla. And then- then the door flung open. I didn’t see it beforehand. They threw something inside and then… everything went black.”

“Was it the military?” Raelle asked.

Tally opened her mouth, but gasped instead of speaking. A particularly large patch of flesh suddenly melded itself back together. It could certainly be an unsettling feeling. When she recovered, she spoke, “I don’t know. I didn’t get a look at them.”

“They found you,” Scylla spoke up from the door. “They found you and now everyone is in danger.”

Raelle shot a glare over her shoulder. “Yeah, thanks for that.” She refocused on Tally, finding that the redhead was nearly fully healed. “You need to clean up and change, and I need to make a phone call. But we can’t do it here. This place is going to be swarming with cops soon.”

Tally nodded, sucking in a deep breath before she tried to stand. Raelle got to her feet as well, keeping her hands on Tally’s shoulders to steady the woman. Such a traumatic death, especially being one of the first that Tally faced, would certainly throw her off.

When she was sure that Tally could stand on her own two feet, Raelle went and grabbed whatever of their items that she could find, that weren’t badly damaged. It wasn’t much, but she did get the others’ weapons. She handed off a bag of clothes to Tally, shouldering a pack with the weapons inside. 

As Raelle headed for the door, she stopped in front of Scylla. “You need to go,” she told the woman. “No one knows you’re still alive, and this is my fight. It’s safer for you to leave, disappear.” Without waiting for an answer, she nudged her way past Scylla and out the door. “Come on, Tal.”

Raelle went back to her room, gathering her weapons and other things, before they made a hasty exit out the back of the hotel. She didn’t see where Scylla had gone, and was sure that was purposeful. For now, she and Tally needed somewhere else to lay low for a little while. Thankfully, Raelle remembered seeing another hotel by the square.

She made sure to keep Tally close, her eyes darting this way and that as she watched for any sign that could point to the slightest hint of trouble. While they walked, she pulled out a phone and the slip of paper that Quartermaine had given her. She punched in the number, perhaps a little too aggressively, then lifted the device to her ear.

It rang exactly twice, then the other end picked up, “Quartermaine.”

“You and I need to talk. Face to face,” Raelle stated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew that was a long wait, wasn't it? My bad.
> 
> If you'd like, you can find me @knightandsin on tumblr, where we can yell about MFS together (or you can shout at me for taking too long between updates, your choice).


	7. Chapter 7

Raelle stood in the pitch-black room, listening intently to what was happening in the hall. One hand was wrapped around the doorknob, keeping it turned while holding the door closed. Her other hand held a 9mm. She expected to hear someone out in the hallway any minute now.

She wasn’t disappointed. Straining ears heard measured footsteps, that came to a stop across the hall from the room she was in. There was a quick rapping on the door.

“Coming!” Raelle could hear Tally calling from the room across from hers.

Raelle eased the door open, finding Quartermaine’s back to her. In silence, she stepped out into the hall. She lifted the gun, pressing the barrel to Quartermaine’s back, right where her heart was. “Lift your hands slowly, where I can see them,” she instructed sternly.

Quartermaine stiffened, but did as she was told to. Her hands elevated, a little off to each side so that Raelle could see them. “This is a bad idea,” she warned.

“Are you armed?” Raelle demanded.

“No,” Quartermaine told her.

Unwilling to just take the woman’s word for it, Raelle eased herself closer and used her free hand to do a quick pat down. Only when she was satisfied that the soldier wasn’t hiding any weapons did she stop. “Alright, Tal, open the door,” she called to the young immortal. 

The door swung open, revealing the redhead giving Quartermaine an apologetic look. “Sorry about that,” she said. 

“Nice and slow into the room,” Raelle told the soldier, keeping the gun pressed to her back. She followed closely as Quartermaine took slow and steady steps into the room, keeping her hands up where Raelle could see them. “Chair by the window.”

Quartermaine adjusted her path to head to the seat in question. When she was nearly there, she suddenly spun on Raelle, trying to disarm the blonde. It was a failure, though. A quick physical struggle resulted in Quartermaine’s nose bleeding and Raelle shoving her down into the chair – gun still firmly in hand.

The barrel was directed at Quartermaine, center mass. “That was stupid,” Raelle pointed out.

“How in the hell did you do that?” the soldier questioned.

“Lots of practice,” Raelle shrugged, clicking the safety off. “Now, it’s my turn to ask questions. Did the military abduct the others? And don’t you dare lie to me.”

It seemed Quartermaine realized her dire situation, as she leaned back in the chair. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You and I met to talk, then the following day, someone attacked the hotel I was staying in and took the others,” Raelle laid out the situation. “Did you and Alder have anything to do with it?”

“No,” Quartermaine shook her head. 

“Now is _not_ the time to lie to me,” Raelle pressed, taking a step toward the soldier.

Quartermaine lifted her hands in surrender. “I swear to you, we had nothing to do with it. I don’t even know where you were staying.”

Tally shuffled to Raelle’s side, leaning in to whisper to her. “I think she’s telling the truth.”

Raelle was silent for a long moment, staring Quartermaine down. Finally, though, she flipped the safety back on and lowered the weapon in her hand. “You’re lucky she believes you,” she stated. “Now, you have a chance to prove yourself and your intentions. You’re going to help me find the others.”

“Okay,” Quartermaine nodded in agreement. She still looked a little uneasy, though. “I’m just going to need you to give me some information so that Moffett knows where to start looking.”

An hour later, the three of them were on a secure video call with the intelligence soldier. Moffett was working on getting surveillance footage from anywhere nearby the hotel when the hit happened.

“ _You guys are… really good at going undetected,_ ” Moffett’s voice came through the laptop speakers.

“Apparently not good enough,” Raelle shook her head.

“ _Okay, I found a café’s security feed. The back door of the hotel is just barely in the frame. Let me see if I can find…_ ” Moffett trailed off, and they could hear the clatter of fast-paced typing. The soldier had a determined look on her face, eyes darting back and forth as she worked.

Moffett’s video feed split screened, so that the others could see what she was seeing. She was skipping through the remote video feed, looking for anything unusual. Suddenly, a white van appeared, parking by the hotel’s back door. Several heavily armed people filed out and headed inside the building.

“Not military,” Quartermaine pointed out.

Raelle met the soldier’s lifted brow with a glare. So maybe it wasn’t military, but the others were gone all the same.

The video screen went fuzzy for just a second, then there was a pause before those armed folks came back out the door. They were dragging Abigail, Byron, and Adil, who looked to be unconscious and in about the same shape as she’d found Tally in. After throwing the immortals into the back of the van there was another pause. Finally, one of the armed people got out of the back of the van, shutting the doors, and went up to the driver’s seat.

Unfortunately, from the vantage of that video, there were no defining markers – like a license plate – that they could identify on the van.

“ _Okay, hold on. I’m going to pull up some street cameras_.” The video feed went black as Moffett looked for other security videos. Another, better quality feed came up, showing the street in front of the hotel. As Moffett found the right time marker, they watched the van pull out from the alley.

It was traveling the opposite direction from the camera, though, and too far away to make out the plate number.

“ _Minor setback_ ,” Moffett spoke up before anyone could criticize her work. “ _I’ll find another one_.”

Another video took that one’s place, this time getting a clear shot of the license plate. “ _There, got it. I’ll run the number through some software and see where they’re heading_.”

Raelle leaned back, swiping her hand beneath her nose. She still wasn’t sure about taking the help of these soldiers, but what other choice did she have? If the military hadn’t taken the others, then it had to be the Camarilla. And who knew what they would do to Abigail, Byron, and Adil?

“ _Got them!_ ” Moffett announced victoriously. “ _They’ve been heading southwest. They left Germany, drove through France, and… it looks like they’re heading for Spain. They’re still on the road_.”

Raelle’s stomach dropped.

“Any indication of a destination, Moffett?” Quartermaine asked.

“ _Not that I can tell at this point. They’re still on the move_.”

“I know where they’re going,” Raelle spoke as she stood from her seat. “Come on, Tal. We’ve got to go.” She was quick to start grabbing their bags.

“Wait, hold on,” Quartermaine protested. “You’re just going to go charging off after them? No back up?”

“Pretty much,” Raelle answered, shouldering a bag and grabbing another.

“We can still help you,” the soldier countered. “Where are they going?”

Raelle hesitated. She _could_ use the help. Going in by herself… well, it wasn’t a good idea. None of this was a good idea. “The Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. That’s where the Camarilla were founded.”

“Alright. Moffett will be our eyes from Base, she’ll keep tabs on where that van is going, in case it changes course,” Quartermaine decided.

“Look, I don’t have time for any of this. I have to find a plane to Spain right now,” Raelle started heading for the door. So caught up in what she needed to do, she didn’t even notice the tingling feeling crawling up her spine.

“I can get you a military freight plane, wheels up ten minutes from when we arrive at the airfield,” Quartermaine called after her.

Raelle was already opening the door and as she looked up to step outside, she stopped dead in her tracks. “Scylla.”

“Miss me?” Scylla asked.

“Always.” Raelle’s answer was breathless, a mix of relief and a tremor of anxiety – fear that Scylla was going to walk away again.

Scylla perked a brow as she looked over Raelle’s shoulder, into the room. “Your friend figure out where the others are?”

Raelle nodded. “That’s the military officer that offered to help us.”

“And… your plan is to march out there, half-cocked, by yourself? Right between the military and the Camarilla?” Scylla pressed. When Raelle only shrugged, Scylla rolled her eyes. “Your plans were always hot garbage. Where are they going?”

“Spain. Santiago de Compostela Cathedral,” Raelle told her.

Scylla’s jaw twitched, then tightened. Her attention lifted back over Raelle’s shoulder. “Hey, Toy Soldier, you got a ride to Spain?” she asked.

“Don’t call me that,” Quartermaine snapped unhappily. “But yes, I can get a transport flight.”

Scylla’s gaze turned back and met Raelle’s. “Then what are we waiting for?”

“You shouldn’t get involved,” Raelle shook her head. “You’re safer if no one knows about you. This is my mess to clean up.”

“The Camarilla stole five hundred years from me, Raelle. Who knows what they’re going to do to the others? And if you go in there by yourself, you’re just as likely to wind up captured, too.” Scylla wasn’t backing down.

Raelle stared at her for a long time. She was torn. Scylla wanted to stay, wanted to help fight for the others. It sparked a kind of hope that Raelle hadn’t felt in lifetimes. It made her heart long for Scylla’s companionship again – for her love.

“Okay,” she relented, barely above a whisper. She cleared her throat and steadied her voice as she looked over her shoulder. “You’re in, Quartermaine. For better or worse. Get us that transport.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is a bit shorter than others, but it was necessary to set up for the next chapter - which will be the last for this story. Once again, I apologize for the long delay between updates.


	8. Chapter 8

While they were in the air, Quartermaine kept an open line of communication with Moffett. The soldier confirmed that the van did, indeed, go exactly where Raelle thought it would. However, it didn’t stay there long. After barely half an hour, it was back on the move and heading west – toward the coast.

The moment the plane touched down, Raelle was on her feet and moving. “We still need to go to the cathedral,” she told them. “If there are any Camarilla there, I’m going to put an end to them.”

“Wait, don’t we need to catch up to the ones that have Abigail and the guys?” Tally asked, trailing behind Raelle and Scylla. Quartermaine brought up the rear.

“They’ll have to stop once they hit the coast. That will give us time to catch up,” Raelle answered.

“A vehicle is waiting for us,” Quartermaine called up to them, indicating a very clearly U.S. military vehicle on the tarmac.

Raelle stopped and looked at the officer. “We are not driving through the streets of Spain in a U.S. Army Humvee. That’s going to draw way too much attention.”

Quartermaine pursed her lips. “Fine. I’ll find another ride. Wait here. If anyone asks about you, you’re government security contractors.”

Raelle offered a mock salute before Quartermaine walked away. Her attention then turned to Scylla. “Ready to burn down a cathedral?” she asked.

“I’ve been waiting for it for years,” Scylla answered. 

“Wait, you’re going to burn down the church?” Tally asked, wide-eyed.

Raelle looked over at the youngest immortal. “If it’s still an active location for the Camarilla, then yes. Maybe if I’d burned it down a couple centuries ago, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“We bury them, once and for all,” Scylla agreed. “The kind of hate they hold has no place in this world, and if we don’t stop them… none of us will ever be safe. They’ll kill innocent people along the way, too. You weren’t there to see the Inquisition. You didn’t witness firsthand as they dragged women and children out of their homes to burn them alive.”

“If that kind of hate could infect the world again…” Raelle trailed off, not wanting to give voice to the kind of atrocities they could witness. The world was already burning around them, they didn’t need to add the Camarilla to the mix. With the rapid-fire communication technology of the modern world, and populations of people so prone to easy paranoia, which could be turned into blind hatred…

A modern-day Inquisition wouldn’t be all that hard to start.

A black SUV rolled up to them, and the driver’s window slid down. “Let’s go,” Quartermaine told them.

The three immortals piled into the vehicle. Back on a video call, Moffett relayed how to get to the cathedral to Quartermaine. It was only a short drive from the airfield they had arrived at.

In the front passenger seat, Raelle pulled her ax out of its case. From an interior pocket of the case, she produced an extra dagger. She turned and reached back, offering it to Scylla.

Blue eyes glanced at the blade, then at Raelle, before Scylla took the offered weapon. “Don’t tell me you think I’m rusty.”

“Just making sure you’re ready,” Raelle countered.

“What… what about me?” Tally asked timidly. She clearly wasn’t all that thrilled about the prospect of a fight.

“You stay with Quartermaine,” Raelle answered, swinging her gaze over to the redhead. “You’ve got no training to fall back on. You can practice your whole ‘knowing’ thing from a distance.”

“Okay.” Tally sounded utterly relieved. Honestly, Raelle didn’t think the redhead had a violent bone in her body. That was alright, though. She came from a world that didn’t need her to be violent – the rest of them did.

Quartermaine stopped the SUV a block down from the cathedral. Tourists were milling about the exterior, but it looked like no one was actively going in or out. The van was long gone, as they expected. Moffett had informed them that it looked like the people that took Abigail and the others were heading for Noia.

They watched the church for signs of Camarilla activity, but there was nothing noticeable going on.

“Get us closer,” Raelle told Quartermaine. “We’ll take care of the rest.”

The soldier nodded. She brought them further up the street, to the point where she could get them closest to the church.

“You guys are going to burn down a stone church?” Tally asked as the building loomed high above them. She craned her neck to try and get a better look.

“Wait, what? There was no discussion of burning down historical landmarks,” Quartermaine quickly interjected.

“Just the stuff inside,” Raelle replied, opening the car door and stepping out before the soldier could argue further. Scylla stepped out next to her and they exchanged a look. “Ready?”

“Always,” Scylla nodded.

Raelle kept her weapon low and tight to her body, so it was less noticeable, as they crossed the distance from the street to the cathedral. The duo headed around the back and found a door that wasn’t barred over. It was locked, however.

That was hardly an obstacle for them, though. A quick, hard swing of the ax broke the doorknob and lock, and they were able to push it open. As quietly as they could, Raelle and Scylla eased inside, pushing the door closed again behind them.

Raelle took point as they ventured into the building. The sanctuary itself was completely silent, which made it difficult for them to carry on without a noise. The acoustics within cathedrals were notoriously good, making them measure every step, every breath, so as not to create any noise that could echo. If there was anyone inside the building, they wanted to have the drop on them.

Slowly but surely, they worked across the sanctuary to a set of stairs that led down. The two took it easy as they headed down, alert and ready for a fight at any moment. The steps led them down to a space that opened up, revealing a vast library. There were clearly other rooms down here as well, as several doors sat slightly ajar.

Raelle looked over at Scylla and nodded, the two splitting apart. Raelle went to make sure the rooms were unoccupied, while Scylla investigated what sort of materials the library housed. The blonde checked each room – one was an office, and the others were various forms of storage, to include an extensive weapons stash. Yet another room was filled with all the devices that the Inquisition had used at its height, designed to torture, maim, and kill those that religious extremists deemed witches and heretics.

“There’s no one down here,” Raelle called to Scylla.

“This is all original Inquisition material – Camarilla material,” Scylla told her.

Raelle’s eyes lingered on the last room she checked. “Yeah… I know.”

“This is how they’re still around. Someone found all this material and was able to form the Camarilla again,” Scylla pointed out. “If we can get rid of this, maybe we can stop them for good.”

Raelle nodded, clearing her throat as she stepped away from the room. Only one place down here was used for storage for the church itself, and she headed back to it. Inside, she found bottles of oil for the various lamps around the sanctuary above them. There were also several books of matches, one of which she pocketed.

She opened the first bottle of oil, pouring it all over the boxes of goods within that room. Raelle poured more out behind her as she stepped out of the room, then tipped the bottle up to stop the flow for a moment. “Take this for a second?” she asked, holding her ax out toward Scylla. After the woman had taken it, Raelle went back to her task.

She ended up going through several bottles of the oil, dousing everything she could in the area to make sure the fire spread to every nook and cranny down here. She didn’t care what kind of historical value any of these items could have – it all needed to burn. The racks of books were most thoroughly coated, to make sure that not even the smallest scrap survived the inferno they were about to unleash.

Once each bottle had been emptied, she went to Scylla’s side and pulled out the book of matches. She didn’t strike it, though. Instead, she offered the matches to Scylla.

They made a silent trade, Raelle’s ax for the matches. Scylla plucked a match free and struck it, the tiny flame burning bright. With a flick of her wrist, Scylla tossed it.

Such a tiny little flame created a blaze that raced through the space. It grew, hot and fast, making the two quickly back off. They already knew what it was like to burn alive, after all. Together, they watched the fire spread and consume everything in the area before them, swallowing up the evil that mankind had created.

Thick, black smoke began to roll up to the ceiling as the flames took hold of wood and paper and everything else that wasn’t metal or stone. Soon, it would start rolling up the stairs to the sanctuary and someone was bound to notice.

Together, Raelle and Scylla made their retreat up the stairs. This time they weren’t nearly as quiet as they crossed the sanctuary. Smoke was pouring up the stairs behind them, and they needed to get out before the fire was noticed.

By the time they burst through the back door, they were at a full-blown sprint. The pair didn’t slow until they were within a couple steps of the SUV, letting it help bring them to a full stop. 

“Go, now!” Scylla told Quartermaine as they jumped in.

“What did you two do?” Quartermaine questioned as sirens began to wail in the distance.

“No time, just drive!” Raelle demanded.

The tires squealed as Quartermaine stomped on the gas, before the vehicle lurched forward into the street. They raced past firetrucks, but thankfully no one stopped them. First responders were apparently more concerned about saving the old cathedral.

Moffett, clearly a little unsettled about helping to possibly destroy a historic landmark, guided Quartermaine to the highway that would take them to Noia. Once they were well on their way, the soldier had managed to gather new intel for them.

“ _The van has stopped at an old, abandoned shipyard_ ,” she informed them through the video call. “ _I did some digging, every ship is decommissioned, except for one. There’s activity around it, and there are a lot of people in that shipyard for it being abandoned._ ”

“So, they’re planning to get away on the water,” Quartermaine surmised. “Why not just get on a plane? That would be so much faster. They could be anywhere in the world in a matter of hours.”

There was silence, no one had a quick answer. Then Scylla’s eyes widened. “Raelle,” she said solemnly to get the blonde’s attention. “The iron maidens.”

Raelle’s eyes went wide, too, at the realization. She shifted to look over at the speedometer. “You need to speed up,” she told Quartermaine.

“ _What… are the iron maidens?_ ” Moffett voiced the question that the others wanted to ask.

“One of the worst torture devices the Camarilla devised,” Raelle answered. “An iron casket, that they could drop in the water. Something to make sure you didn’t escape when they drowned you.”

“Unsurvivable,” Scylla added. “I don’t think we’d even survive it.”

Raelle’s jaw tightened. “We would.” It would be excruciating, drowning only to come back a few minutes later and do it all over again. “I did.”

_She fought so hard against the chains and the men’s hands that held her. Like a wild animal that had been trapped and was fighting for its life._

_She was fighting for her life._

_When Raelle looked up at the cart she was being dragged to, she saw the great iron casket, formed in the shape of a wailing woman, open and ready for her. Her blood went cold._

_“No! Let go of me!” she shouted, struggling harder. “No! Not this!”_

_“Foul Beast, Wicked Creation, Sin Incarnate, you will now face God’s judgement!” the red-robed priest shouted from his place by the cart._

_Raelle practically roared in frustration, yanking and tugging, kicking and flailing. But the oh-so-righteous men couldn’t be shaken off. They dragged her up to the cart and shoved her into the maiden._

_“No!” Raelle howled like a banshee, banging her fists against the iron plates as they closed around her. She could hear chains and locks clicking into place. “No! Let go of me!”_

_No matter how much she fought and struggle against the maiden, it didn’t budge. She shattered the bones in her hands, hitting the metal so many times with so much force. But she couldn’t free herself. She couldn’t save herself._

_Just like she hadn’t saved Scylla from them._

_The cart bumped along a muddy road through the city. People yelled vile things at her, and she could hear the patter as rocks and rotten food were thrown at the iron maiden. Raelle couldn’t, wouldn’t stop trying to break her way free. If she didn’t get out, this would be it. The end of the line for her. She’d never be able to find Scylla. They’d be separated forever._

_When the cart came to a stop, Raelle could just barely see a lake through the maiden’s gaping mouth. “No. No, no, no.”_

_The iron casket moved, and she heard several men grunting from the exertion of moving it. The maiden slid to the edge of the cart and was taken down unceremoniously. Raelle was jarred around inside, smacking into the sides, until she hit the back with a thud as the casket was allowed to topple. From the gaping mouth, Raelle could see a crystal-clear blue sky above._

_The maiden was dragged along by three men, pulling it by a heavy chain attached to the top of the head. People were still screaming about her being a witch, calling for her death. They must have followed all the way from the city._

_Raelle heard the metal around her hit wood, and knew they’d made it to a pier leading out above the water. As the iron rolled over wood, it bumped and bobbed her around. She could hear the water around them._

_Goddess, this was going to be awful._

_When they came to a stop, the man in red robes appeared above her. “Have you any last words, foul creature? Repent now, and the Lord may yet forgive you.”_

_Raelle looked him dead in the eye. “When I get out of here, you’re all dead,” she vowed._

_“May God have mercy on you,” the man replied, crossing himself before stepping away. “Throw her into the lake!”_

_The maiden suddenly surged forward, and Raelle felt herself tip off the pier. She closed her eyes._

_“Scylla.” If she really was to have any last words spoken aloud today, it would be the name of the woman she loved._

_The maiden hit the water and began to sink, filling quickly._

_Drowning didn’t get easier, any time it happened. Raelle couldn’t keep track of how many times she woke up, already in excruciating pain because her lungs could expel water, but there was no air to take in. Every time she woke up, she fought against the iron maiden that confined her, but it was to no avail._

_Telling how much time passed by was impossible. She never knew how long she was out, there was no measure to go by except whether it was light or dark around her._

_It felt like lifetimes that she laid at the bottom of that lake, though._

_Then, one day, when her eyes popped open and she involuntarily gasped for a breath, her lungs filled with air. It clearly scared the man that had opened the casket._

_Raelle didn’t hesitate, lunging forward and wrapping the chain between her wrists around the man’s neck. Pure, unfiltered rage was her fuel as she viciously snapped the man’s neck. Wild blue eyes turned when she heard a man screaming, seeing the one in red robes. The last time she’d seen him, peering in at her through the visage of the iron maiden, he was middle-aged. Now, he was grey and wrinkled, but there was no mistaking that it was him._

_With a nearly animal snarl, Raelle launched herself at him. He tried to run, but there was no escaping her wrath. Raelle tackled him to the ground as he blubbered out a protective prayer._

_There would be no mercy here._

_Her hands wrapped around his throat and though he was clearly the larger of the two, Raelle still overpowered him and kept him flat on his back. “Where did you take Scylla?” she demanded, voice rough._

_Even if he would have offered an answer, his airway was cut off – making it impossible. He still tried to choke out his prayer, though._

_Raelle watched as his face began to change colors and only squeezed harder. “It hurts, doesn’t it? Not being able to breathe? Too bad I can’t make you feel it over and over again.”_

“Rae,” Scylla’s gentle voice pulled Raelle back to the present. “You didn’t tell me-“

“-Haven’t had a lot of time to talk, have we?” Raelle interrupted, her voice sounding as rough as it did in the memory. She cleared her throat, trying to make the hitch go away. “How far out are we?”

“About ten minutes,” Quartermaine answered.

“Scylla and I are going into the shipyard alone,” Raelle told the others. “It’s too dangerous for everyone to go.”

Besides, they both had unfinished business with the Camarilla.

Surprisingly, no one argued with her. “I’ll find a vantage point to provide cover,” Quartermaine offered. “There’s a case with radios under the back seat. Take one with you so we can keep in communication.”

Scylla shifted and reached beneath the seat, finding the case in question. She opened it up, taking one radio for her and Raelle, then handed the other to Tally. “You keep watch with Quartermaine, tell us if you see anything.”

Tally nodded as she took the radio. “I will.”

Quartermaine stopped the SUV well outside the shipyard. The whole area was an abandoned industrial complex. “Tally and I will go up to the roof of that building,” she said, indicating her destination. “We’ll cover you from there.”

Everyone got out of the vehicle, Raelle and Scylla taking off toward the shipyard. They made it past the fence that was practically collapsed and moved forward. Decrepit shipping containers littered the area, rusting doors squeaking and groaning as they swung in the breeze. Raelle and Scylla took cover behind one of the storage containers, sliding along it to one end so Raelle could get a look further into the shipyard.

There were armed men and women milling around the area. According to Moffett’s intel, the only ship capable of sailing was at the far end of the yard. That left them with a lot of distance to cross.

Raelle leaned back against the shipping container, drawing in a breath. It was going to be a hard fight. They were outnumbered – they’d had worse odds, of course. But now, there were such things as automatic rifles, and they hadn’t brought any guns. Blades were much quieter, and they didn’t have to worry about running out of ammo. 

She felt a warm hand wrap around her free one, and she glanced over to meet Scylla’s gaze.

“ _Just you and me?_ ” Scylla asked in Mothertongue.

Raelle felt her chest constrict. “ _Always_ ,” she answered with a nod. “ _Until the end._ ”

The two stared at each other for a moment, before Raelle swallowed hard and turned her attention back to the shipyard. She shifted and readied herself, feeling Scylla’s hand on her shoulder – a silent signal that the woman was ready to follow her.

Raelle spun the ax in her hand once and broke cover. Working in tandem without having to speak, she and Scylla broke apart to go after different foes. Raelle snuck up behind the nearest man, one powerful swing burying the head of her ax at the junction of his neck and shoulder, giving him a quick end. She glanced over, seeing Scylla slit someone’s throat without a sound.

They wound their way through the shipyard, taking out sentries along the way. Even after all this time, they were an effective team. No words were exchanged between them, looks and nods were the only things they needed to communicate. It was just like old times.

But eventually, their cover was blown. One of the armed guards found their fallen comrades.

“She’s here!” the man shouted a warning out. “We’ve got people down!”

Bright lights suddenly came up, illuminating the shipyard against the falling darkness. Across from one another, Raelle and Scylla sank against their respective spots for cover. The element of surprise was gone. This fight was about to get a lot more annoying.

She looked across the way and met Scylla’s eyes. They were both crouched in a similar position, backs against the containers they were hiding behind, but ready to spring up at a moment’s notice. 

Scylla took the lead this time, lifting a hand to silently count them down. Raelle nodded her acknowledgment, shifting her stance just a little and gripping the ax’s handle with both hands. 

In unison, they broke cover, moving as one. Gunfire erupted around them, as they went after the Camarilla guards. The two ducked and weaved, slashing their weapons while remaining within arm’s reach of one another. A couple of guards were downed not by them, but by well-placed shots from Quartermaine.

The radio on Scylla’s belt crackled to life, Tally delivering only slightly panicked warnings about incoming Camarilla. Despite being outgunned and outmanned, Raelle and Scylla made an astonishingly effective two-woman army. Whatever hits they took didn’t slow them down in the least.

“ _Scylla! Behind you!_ ” a frantic warning buzzed through the radio.

Raelle turned and acted without thinking. She lifted the ax above her head and launched it through the air with both hands. The head of the ax sunk into a woman’s chest before she could get a shot off at Scylla. However, it left Raelle wide open and she took two shots in the side. 

Before she could even think of going after her attacker, a dagger flew by her and struck the man. Raelle perked a brow and glanced at Scylla, who was giving her a look that she knew all too well. The blonde took a couple quick steps and retrieved the dagger, walking it over to Scylla to trade for her ax.

“Yeah, yeah,” Raelle drawled as Scylla opened her mouth. “You can take care of yourself, I know. I’ve heard it a thousand times.”

Scylla lifted a brow at her. “I was going to say thank you,” she replied.

“Oh.” Raelle was surprised, wincing as her body rejected the bullets that had embedded themselves in her. “You’re welcome.”

“Ready for one, final push?” Scylla asked.

“Let’s go get the others,” Raelle nodded.

The ship that Moffett had indicated was about 30 yards away, and they needed to get to it before the Camarilla were back on the run. If they got away from the dock and out to the open ocean… it would be near impossible to find the others.

Breaking from cover one last time, Raelle made a run for the ship. A hail of bullets whizzed through the air around her, as she ducked and weaved to avoid as many of them as possible. The rest of the guards had gathered at the ramp to the ship, half a dozen of them clogging the pathway up.

“ _The ship is packed with explosives,_ ” Tally warned across the radio. “ _You’ve got to hurry_.”

Raelle reversed her hold on the ax as she charged up the ramp. Even six, armed people didn’t stand a chance against her and Scylla. Each one of them ended up creating a splash in the water below as the two women fought their way onto the ship.

Once they set foot on the deck, Tally’s voice came across the radio. “ _Starboard side, that’s where the others are being held_.”

Together, Raelle and Scylla jogged to the other side of the ship, finding three iron maidens standing close enough to the railing to be pushed off. Raelle went to the first one, using the blunt side of the ax as a hammer like she had at the church. The heavy lock holding the iron plate doors closed broke away. She moved on to the next while Scylla opened the first maiden.

“Thank the goddess,” Byron sighed with relief once he was freed.

“You have really good timing,” Abigail commended as she stepped out of her iron confines.

Once Adil was freed as well, they all turned to get off the ship. But there was one last thing they hadn’t noticed. “ _You need to hurry up_ ,” Tally warned. “ _There’s one more person on board. He’s arming the explosives_.”

Raelle stopped in her tracks. “Scyl, get them off the ship,” she told the other woman.

“What? No,” Scylla frowned, facing her. “We do this together.”

“I’ll be right behind you, I promise,” Raelle assured her. “If there’s a chance even one of the Camarilla is going to come out of this alive, we’ll never be safe.”

Scylla paused, but eventually nodded. “Hurry.” She ushered the others off the ship, making sure they got well clear of the area in case the ship did blow.

Raelle went back to the nearest door she remembered seeing, stepping inside. She could hear movement coming from the next compartment, so she headed that way. There was a man inside, arming a device hooked up to several barrels.

Well, shit.

“Why don’t you step away from that?” she suggested, hoping to stop him before he finished.

The man startled, whirling around to face her. “It’s you,” he scowled. “Oh, I’ve heard of you. Unnatural, foul creature.”

“Do you guys ever get any new material?” Raelle asked. “I’ve heard that one so many times.”

“The world will finally be rid of you,” he spat. 

Raelle glanced around, then back at him. “Well, it’s just you and me in here and only one of us can’t die. So, how are you planning to manage that?”

The man glanced over his shoulder and grinned, then stepped to the side. A timer was in its final seconds. “No one has ever blown you up before.”

“Fuck.” Raelle turned and started to run, but it was too late. She had just managed to get back to the deck when the loudest explosion she had ever heard assaulted her ears. The force of the blast threw her off the ship, several yards out into the water. But she never felt herself hit the water or sink into it.

Everything was already gone.

She didn’t feel hands grab her as she sank, dragging her back to the surface. She didn’t feel herself being taken back to the dock, or pulled back up onto it. She didn’t hear panicked voices around her, didn’t see the others crowded around her.

“Give us some space!” Scylla barked at Abigail, Adil, and Byron. She was on her knees next to Raelle’s body – the blonde badly burned and body broken from the blast. She scooted forward, gathering Raelle’s top half into her lap. She cradled Raelle’s head.

“Come on, Raelle,” she coaxed the blonde, leaning down so their foreheads rested together. “Come back to me. I need you to come back to me.”

Minutes dragged by, enough to make the others shift nervously behind them.

“Raelle,” Scylla said more firmly. “You don’t get to stop coming back now. You need to come back to me.”

Suddenly, Raelle inhaled sharply, and her groan was swallowed up as Scylla’s lips pressed to hers. Raelle didn’t hesitate in returning the kiss – whatever pain she was feeling an afterthought when paired against the balm of Scylla’s lips.

When they pulled apart a moment later, Raelle opened her eyes and looked up at Scylla. “Hey, beautiful,” she drawled. “Why are you all wet?”

“Because you decided to take an unconscious swim,” Scylla answered matter-of-factly.

“Thanks for coming to get me.” As her body healed, Raelle slowly sat herself up.

“We better get out of here,” Abigail piped up from behind them. “That explosion is bound to bring the authorities. We want to be long gone before that.”

Scylla helped Raelle get to her feet and kept an arm around her as they left the shipyard. The place was littered with bodies and bullet casings. Hopefully Moffett was just as good as she claimed to be, to cover up their tracks after this one.

When they got to where Quartermaine had left the vehicle, the soldier and Tally were waiting for them. “Did you have to blow up half the shipyard?” Quartermaine asked. “On top of vandalizing a historical landmark?”

“What kind of fun did we miss?” Byron pouted.

“Hey, you were the one that wanted to help us,” Raelle pointed out to Quartermaine as they all piled into the SUV. “If Moffett can clean up this mess, you and your unit are in. You really pulled through for us today.”

“Good, because I already know what we’re doing next,” Quartermaine replied. “Have you ever heard of the Spree?”


	9. Epilogue

Golden light filtered into the room, drawing her out of a peaceful slumber. After so long, so many years of thinking she’d never sleep well again, Raelle reveled in the tranquility of a full night’s rest. Well, maybe not a _full_ night of rest…

Slowly, her eyes opened, focusing in on the decorated ceiling of the hotel room. Breathing deep, she looked to her left, blue eyes sweeping over a porcelain back. Raelle shifted onto her side and scooted over to the other body sharing a bed with her. She buried her nose into the crook of a neck, while her arm draped over a waist beneath the sheet covering them both.

Scylla hummed. “Morning,” she said, voice still thick with sleep.

“G’morning, beautiful,” Raelle replied, pressing their bodies together. She held Scylla close, savoring this quiet, early morning moment.

Scylla leaned back into Raelle’s hold. “You’re not a morning person.”

“I am now.” After being so long apart, Raelle couldn’t imagine wasting a morning just because she wanted more sleep. “I could make you a morning person, too…” Her hand began to wander teasingly.

“Mm, we have to meet with Quartermaine,” Scylla pointed out.

“I can be quick,” Raelle chuckled.

Scylla shifted and turned over in her hold so that they could face one another. She leaned forward and brought their lips together, making Raelle melt into the touch. Scylla lifted a hand as they parted, fingertips feather light as she traced the scar on Raelle’s chin. “Do you remember the first time we met?”

“Of course,” Raelle answered with a faint smile.

_Raelle had been wandering for so many years. She felt so alone. It had been lifetimes_ _– a millennia -_ _since she first died . Waking up after having been killed the first time was jarring. Now, though, she was used to it. This was just how her life worked._

_What perplexed her currently were the recurring dreams she was having. Every night it happened, for years. So long, she couldn't remember having any kind of other dream. The most beautiful woman she’d ever seen haunted her sleep. When Raelle woke each day, she felt some unseen force pulling at her._

_Where was it pulling her? She didn’t know. But she followed where it directed her. She’d been traveling, searching for years. Thousands of miles were crossed, though it seemed like she was making next to no headway. Surely, something had to be at the end of her journey._

_Raelle could feel it._

_The smell of salt was growing heavier in the air, as a small village came into sight. It was nestled just shy of the sea. She could see people milling about, carrying on with their daily lives. Maybe this would be a decent place to stop and rest for the night, assuming the villagers weren’t wary of strangers._

_As she approached though, Raelle stopped. She looked to her left, out toward the sea. Something – someone, perhaps – was there._

_Shifting her track, Raelle headed toward the shore. As she got closer to the water’s edge, she could see a figure standing and staring out at the sea. Raelle’s steps slowed, though her heart beat harder than she could ever remember._

_The figure turned to look at her, and Raelle completely stopped walking._

_It was her._

_It was like the parting of the darkest of storm clouds, to reveal a brilliant sky. Like a gulp of fresh air, after spending a lifetime of holding your breath._

_Like coming to life, after being dead for so long._

_Raelle’s feet started moving on their own, and the woman on the shore crossed the distance to meet her halfway. Without a single word spoken between them, they embraced._

_And Raelle knew what it was like to feel whole._

“It was Greece,” Scylla reminisced. “I had to move from village to village after the first time I died, so the people wouldn’t get suspicious.”

“You were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen,” Raelle smiled. With gentle encouragement, she guided Scylla onto her back. “You still are.”

“We have to meet Quartermaine soon,” Scylla reminded her with feigned exasperation.

Raelle’s lips trailed lovingly along Scylla’s jaw. “She can wait. We’ve never been on time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So obviously I unintentionally lied in the notes of Chapter 7, and ended up with two more chapters after it. I hope everyone enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'd like to thank everyone that has left kudos and taken the time to write such lovely comments along the way.
> 
> Once again, I'd like to invite anyone interested in finding me on tumblr to come on over to @knightandsin. We can chat, you can send in requests, prompts, suggestions, poke and prod at me about the possibility of upcoming fics, etc.
> 
> Thank you again to everyone that stopped by and read this story. Until the next!


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